ESTA’s newest best practice guide – on the safe use, inspection and maintenance of rope sheaves on mobile cranes – will be revealed at our special 50th Anniversary Conference in Amsterdam next month.
The project was set up in 2025 by ESTA together with FEM, the European Association of Lifting Equipment Manufacturers.
The work was led by the same three-strong expert team that produced ESTA’s previously published document on winch gearboxes – Klaus Meissner from ESTA, Hermen Kamp from Mammoet and Gerrit van Hove from Sarens.
Rope sheaves on mobile cranes are pulley-like wheels with grooves around their circumference, designed to guide wire ropes or cables, and they serve a critical function in the crane’s lifting mechanism by holding the load and often being the luffing mechanism of the crane boom.
They also ensure that the wire rope follows a controlled and efficient path between the boom, winch drum, and hook block, without contact to fixed parts, reducing abrasion and fatigue on the rope, so extending its life and helping to ensure safety.
Ropes under tension running over structural parts can easily damage the structure, which may lead to fatal consequences.
Without effective inspection and maintenance, the sheave can become dangerously unstable and ESTA had received comments from members expressing their concerns about the correct use, inspection and maintenance issues with sheaves that it felt merited further study.
ESTA’s expert team brought together different stakeholders, including sheave and crane manufacturers along with end users.
They received detailed input from eleven companies – crane and sheave manufacturers as well as user companies – from both Europe and the USA.
The result is a consensus document supported by all parties, which provides details of best practices for inspection and maintenance. It will be published by ESTA on its website.
Explaining why ESTA embarked on the project, Klaus Meissner said: “Typically, sheaves are not neglected but the effects if a sheave would fail are often underestimated. Users are uncertain what happens over time, for example with plastic materials, and how to check the function of bearings. It is also often not understood that not every grease is a good choice for a roller bearing.”