ESTA has agreed to make its new guide on mobile crane winch gearbox maintenance freely available to any interested organisation as part of its ongoing push to improve safety standards.
Circulation of guides produced by ESTA is normally restricted to members, but ESTA believes there is growing interest in this issue from a wide range of non-members such as regulators and health and safety bodies.
ESTA crane expert Klaus Meissner said: “This important safety issue should be discussed and understood by a wide range of organisations, including relevant official bodies outside ESTA – so we felt it was right that it received the widest possible exposure.”
Members have been asked to reconsider their approach to mobile crane winch gearbox maintenance following publication of the guide which was officially launched at ESTA’s Spring meeting in Paris.
Supporters believe the new proposals could both improve safety and – in some cases – save money. They were drafted by a small group led by ESTA’s crane expert Klaus Meissner along with Mammoet’s Hermen Kamp and Gerrit van Hove from Sarens.
They then consulted more widely across the industry with rental companies, crane manufacturers and four gearbox manufacturers – Zollern, Liebherr Components, Siebenhaar and Rexroth.
The requirement to calculate the remaining life of a winch is a crucial safety consideration because if the crane winch gearbox fails the crane’s load can come down.
The current regime involves a major overhaul after ten years to check that the winch gearbox is still in good condition, but many experts argue that the ten-year threshold is an arbitrary deadline and does not reflect the equipment’s actual usage.
ESTA’s expert group has produced a maintenance regime that is based on technical analysis, for example by implementing regular oil analyses, that will provide detailed information for other inspections.
This might both improve safety by catching unexpected problems earlier and, in some cases, might save money by prolonging the use of the winches beyond current time frames.
Meissner added: “I hope that many people will read our work and take the opportunity to improve the operation and maintenance of their winches. They might as a result, be able to use them for longer periods and reduce costs. Simply put, we feel there is a better way of judging the state of the gearbox.”
The guide can be downloaded from the Library section of this website