Tag Archives: crane professionals

Who Is Most at Risk When Working Around Cranes?

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Unfortunately, crane-related injuries often result in fatalities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an average of 42 deaths per year happen from crane-related accidents.

If you just started working with cranes, or you are looking to rent a crane from crane rentals, you must be wondering who is at the highest risk when working with cranes, right? Well, the truth is that anyone without proper training can be a victim.

Crane accidents, like other industrial occurrences, are often the result of operator error. Operator errors occur for a variety of causes, including inadequate training, distraction, exhaustion, and, in severe cases, drunkenness from drugs and alcohol.

This puts everyone on the site in significant danger.

Common risks

There are plenty of risks that come when working with cranes. The most common ones are:

Electrocution

All employees, including the operator, are accountable for identifying electrical dangers. Crane booms may come into touch with overhead electrical lines due to their height.

When this occurs, the electrical current can travel along the boom, into the material line, and through the tagline before passing directly through the worker securing the tagline.

One of the most critical safety precautions crane operators can take is to have local utility personnel mark off overhead lines with safety flags. This increases crane operators’ vision and hazard awareness.

Employers must also maintain a safe distance between the crane’s operational location and any electrical wires.

To be on the safe side, you should handle cranes with a minimum of 10 feet of clearance from electrical lines. This distance includes the fully extended load.

Falling loads

Most people envision crane accidents as a big cargo being dropped from the crane’s greatest height. This is a real threat associated with crane operations that all worksite managers must be aware of.

Falling loads occur for a variety of reasons. To begin, if the load is not properly fixed or fastened to the crane’s load line, it may slip.

If the load is not properly balanced, it can shift the machine’s center of gravity, resulting in tipping, which puts everyone on the site in danger.

Another potential risk arises when the principal load line or a tagline is disrupted. Without the entire support of an undamaged cable, the load becomes unstable, and one or more lines may finally give way and release the weight.

Two-blocking can occur when the operator does not allow for enough slack when extending the boom. This generates extra tension in a cable, causing the load to snap off.

Weather conditions are also an important consideration for operators. When cranes operate in severe environments, loads that are not properly fastened with taglines may become unstable owing to wind force and unrestrained swinging.

Finally, falling loads might occur when the load exceeds the crane’s design capability. Riggers must follow OSHA crane rules by first determining the load’s weight and capacity, then properly rigging and shackling it.

Operators are also responsible for maintaining smooth control of the weight to prevent it from falling.

To minimize the chances of this accident happening on your site, take your time and only hire experienced crane operators who know what they are doing.

Struck by accidents

The crane’s swinging movements increase the chance of being struck by an object. When the crane is raising or transferring a load, an unprepared worker could be injured by swinging pieces.

According to BLS data, 52% of the fatalities happen as a result of struck-by occurrences. Nearly 27% of these fatalities occur when a worker is struck by a load that fell from a moving crane.

To prevent this accident, be ultra-cautious of the operator you hire. You also should ensure that you train everyone to be more cautious when carrying out their activities beneath the crane.

Caught between hazards

Another construction incident occurs when workers are caught in or between dangers. In crane operations, caught-in/between accidents occur when a worker is physically pinned or compressed by the crane’s swinging superstructure or crushed by its moving elements.

Every piece of construction equipment, from a basic skid steer loader to a big industrial crane, contains moving elements, which produce pinch points.

The most critical thing a construction business can do to reduce crane-related accidents is to provide, teach, and enforce two-way radio communication between the operator and ground personnel.

Ground personnel are most vulnerable to being compressed in pinch points. Thus, they must be aware when the operator begins working the crane, particularly while adjusting its swinging sections or driving it forward or backward.

Transportation hazards

The frequently disregarded danger of working with cranes is the risk of transporting cranes to and from work sites.

These accidents are frequently referred to as the fifth danger in OSHA’s list of deadly four. Cranes are massive machines that must frequently be transported over large distances by industrial trucks.

Crane transportation is a long and difficult procedure with numerous potential hazards, including crashes, runovers, and brake failure.

It’s estimated that more than 13% of fatal crane incidents occur during transportation. Oversized loads, such as cranes, are risky and can kill personnel who are not properly trained or do not adhere to crane safety regulations for transportation.

Best practices when working with cranes

To reduce the chances of accidents happening, you should be cautious about how you handle the cranes. To be on the safe side, here are tips you should observe:

Properly train your employees

As an employer, you must give proper health and safety training to all of your employees so that they are competent at their employment.

By educating your personnel, you improve workplace safety, satisfaction, and revenues while reducing injuries, fatalities, accidents, and illness.

Ensure people working on the crane know where to stand

You should never stand underneath a crane or have a weight lifted over you. Your personnel must be aware of this and avoid wandering through any areas where cranes are overhead.

Parting shot

Everyone working with cranes is at risk of getting injured or hurt, so you should be aware of this when renting cranes from crane services VA.

Besides hiring a well maintained crane, also ensure that you work with experienced professionals. It also doesn’t hurt to train the people handling the crane to reduce the chances of accidents happening.

6 Things You Should Know Before Getting Crane Services

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For your project to be a success, you need to ensure everything is in place.  Here are a few things you should know before you contact crane services providers:

Weight of the load

Different cranes have different weight capabilities. Before you decide to hire a crane, take time to find out the weight of the load you are looking to lift. The best way is asking professionals to help you weigh it.

In addition to weighing the load, also take measurements of it—measure the length and width. Knowing the load weight will help the company advise you on the right crane to go for.

Why you are renting

You need to have a clear reason why you are renting the crane. If you have a short term project or you already have a crane, but it’s broken and wants a replacement for a few days, you need to get into a short term rental agreement with the rental company.

On the other hand, if you have many projects and want to use the crane for a long time, let the crane rental company know it and negotiate longer contractors that often come with great discounts.

You can also rent a crane when you are looking to test a few cranes so that you can tell the right one to buy in the future. In such a scenario, you have to rent a number of cranes and try them out. This way, you will know the right ones to go for when it comes to time to buy.

Height of the lift

When undertaking heavy lifting with cranes, you need to know how far you want to lift the load. Just as cranes come with different weight capabilities, they also come with varying capabilities of height. Before you hire a crane, you should know how high you want the crane to lift the load.

When you are looking to place an HVAC unit on the roof, you need a completely different crane from when you are looking to put it on top of a ten-story building. When renting, the rental company will ask you about it. Ensure that you know the exact height to avoid spending money on a machine that won’t give you the service you are looking for.

If you aren’t sure of how high the crane is going to lift the load, ask the professionals to help you in taking the measurements.

Condition of the site

This is often a forgotten factor. Is your site on a hilly, muddy, sandy or flat surface? You need to know about this as different cranes manoeuvre differently on different surfaces. When renting for the first time, you might not know how the machines move, but it’s wise that you fully understand the nature of your site. This will help the crane companies advise you on the right crane to hire.

Who will operate the crane?

The person operating the crane is crucial for your project. Since you rent cranes by the hour, you want someone who will get the work done correctly and in the shortest time possible. Even if you have employees experienced in operating cranes, it won’t be wise to hire them as they will have to learn how to operate it as it’s of a different type and model.

The best way out is to hire an expert. Most of the companies offering crane rental services also provide you with the option of hiring a crane operator by the hour, which is a great consideration. While it will be more expensive than when working with one of your employees, you will bring efficiency and professionalism to the project.

Who will handle the maintenance and repairs?

Different companies providing crane rentals VA have different policies when it comes to crane repair and maintenance. Some stick with the fact that you are the one using the machine; therefore, you should be responsible for the repairs and maintenance. Others believe it’s their responsibility to take care of their machine. To have an easy time, work with a company that will maintain its machines.

This way, you end up saving a lot. You also complete the work fast as you always get a replacement crane in the event one of the cranes fails to work.

Crane Rentals: 5 Tips To Consider When Using Cranes

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Whether you have a brand new project that requires you to start from scratch or you are undertaking a renovation, you need a crane. If you don’t have one, you need to hire the crane from your local crane rentals. Cranes make it easy to transport large, heavy, and unwieldy materials.

For you to have a great time with the rented crane you need to consider a number of tips:

Understand your project requirements

What does your project entail? You need to know the ins and outs of it. This is to know the right type of crane you should hire. You need to know the nature of your terrain, the weather conditions, the weight of the materials, the height of the structure, among many other things.

If renting the crane for the first time, work with a professional who will guide you on the right crane to rent.

Work with the right company

You might be having all the details of your site but you will have a bad experience if you work with the wrong crane company. There are many crane rental companies, but no two are similar.

A good company should have high quality, properly maintained cranes. This way you are sure that the cranes won’t develop problems on the site.

It’s also wise to work with a company with many cranes. A company with one crane ends up being too expensive. In the event the one crane breaks down, you have to hire another from a different company, which leads to you paying double price for the crane.

When you work with a company with many cranes, you are sure that the company will replace the faulty crane with a new one in the event the one you are using breaks down.

Have the necessary permits

For you to legally use the crane in your project, you should have the necessary permits. If having your project in an urban area and you are using a large crane, you may have to block a portion of the road.

If you don’t have the necessary permits the city may temporarily shut down your project, which will be an inconvenience for you.

Before you start working, visit your local city offices and understand the permits that you need. You should note that sometimes it’s the responsibility of the crane company to get the permits. To cut your costs, first research who is responsible for the permits.

Organize your team and site

Don’t bring the crane before the site is ready. This is because you will end up wasting a lot of time and money. Most of the rental companies rent the machines by the hour. This means that if you don’t prepare the site early enough, you will be paying a rental fee while the crane is sitting on the trailer.

Before you go to the rental companies, ensure that the site is clear of any obstructions. Are there long trees in the area? Get rid of them before you begin your work.

Just as you should prepare the site, you also should prepare your team. For the rigging process to be a success you need to have a rigging team. Choose a team of experienced individuals to help you with the work.

If they haven’t been engaged in a similar project before, have them trained first. By the time you are getting the crane, everyone should know what the project entails, the responsibility of the team members, and how to avoid accidents from coming about.

Move the crane early

Unless you are hiring a mobile crane, you have to hire heavy machinery movers to help you move the crane. To avoid wasting hours in traffic, plan to move early in the morning before there are many cars on the road.

In addition to this saving you time, it also increases the safety issue as you have few things to deal with at that time.

Schedule lifting during the standard working hours

Unless you have to absolutely do it, you should undertake your lifting during the normal working hours. This is important if you have to hire a crane operator. By doing the lifting outside of this time, you will have to pay an extra fee which makes the crane services VA too expensive.