What is the Importance of a Crane Load Chart?
Cranes have been around for quite some time and are complex machinery. They have been essential for modern constructions and complicated structures. The crane industry employs thousands of workers worth billions of dollars.
Modern cranes are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and crane warning systems, and operating one is no easy task. It requires significant experience and training. Operators must have a robust understanding of how the crane works, and interpreting a crane’s load chart is vital to the success of operations.
Let’s take an in-depth look at the importance of crane load charts and why they are essential during crane operations.
Load Charts and Their Importance
In simple terms, load charts summarize what a crane can and cannot do. It provides a basic description of the crane’s operational capabilities, features, and characteristics. These features will include the loads it can handle during specific applications. Apart from specifications, most charts will include sufficient boom length, angle, and lift range information.
An experienced crane operator or engineer will be able to understand this information and determine whether the crane is suitable for a particular application or not. If the crane charts show incorrect information on boom length, angle, and lift range, it may cause the crane to fall.
Load Charts Rules and Regulations
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) considers load charts to be fundamental in operations because they provide information on the capabilities of the machinery. Therefore, OSHA requires operators to fully comprehend and consult the charts before operating a crane.
Project supervisors, managers, or other stakeholders involved in crane operations must also understand and interpret load charts. OSHA also provides detailed information on how and where load charts must be displayed and the information they are required to contain.
Interpreting a Crane Load Chart
Crane load charts may vary, but they generally contain more or less the same information relevant to the machinery’s load capabilities, lift range, boom angle, movement, and deduction. The lift capacity indicates how much load the crane can lift with respect to the nature of the lift, load dimensions, lift height, and angle.
Lift range is a diagram that illustrates the required boom length relative to the distance and lift height. The boom angle is complicated, and speaking purely in mathematical terms, the angle is found between the longitudinal and horizontal centerline. The crane’s stability should always be considered when evaluating the boom angle. If the crane tries to lift a load heavier than it should, it may lose balance.
Cranes often move or rotate to complete a lift. The speed and how far the crane should rotate must be ascertained when checking a lift’s feasibility. If the movement information is not provided, and it tries to lift a load, it may lose balance and tip over.
Another thing that should be considered when determining the load weight a crane can lift is deducing the weight of the crane and its accessories. These accessories may include, but are not limited to:
· Rigging
· Line
· Ball and Jib
· Block
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