Guidelines

GuidelinesSafety

Protect Workers Servicing Overhead Cranes From Falls

Inspecting and servicing overhead industrial cranes requires personnel to work at heights, increasing their risk of injury or death should they fall. Likewise, any tool they may accidentally drop becomes a potential hazard to employees working on the ground beneath ...
GuidelinesSafety

End Stops: Best Practices For Specifying And Using In Overhead ...

End stops mark the end of a rail in an overhead crane or monorail system. Located at the termination point of the running surface for bridge and trolley travel, these fixed devices provide a physical barrier that fully engages the ...
GuidelinesSafety

Understand The Basics Of Load Test Requirements

A load test is performed to verify that a specific crane or hoist will safely perform all of its functions while supporting a test load whose weight is at least equal to the equipment’s rated capacity. Because load tests confirm ...
GuidelinesSafety

Alert Personnel To Overhead Crane Operation With Audible And Visual ...

Warning devices, including both audible alarms that emit an unusual sound and visual alarms that illuminate or flash repeating patterns of light, should be used on both indoor and outdoor overhead cranes whose lifting, lowering, and movement functions are powered. ...
GuidelinesStandards

New Overhead Lifting Best Practices Guide To Be Released

Between them, the members of MHI’s Overhead Alliance — which includes the Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA), the Hoist Manufacturers Institute (HMI), and the Monorail Manufacturers Association (MMA) — have answered thousands of questions and published approximately 100 documents ...
GuidelinesSafety

Understanding Safety Signs And Overhead Lifting Equipment Hazards

As heavy industrial equipment designed and engineered to lift, transport, and maneuver large, dense loads throughout a facility, overhead handling systems — including cranes, hoists, and monorails — can pose safety hazards to operators and other personnel if they are ...
GuidelinesSafety

Why Capacity Markings Are Crucial To Overhead Handling Safety

All components of an overhead handling system — including cranes, hoists, and monorails — are designed and constructed by their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to support a maximum rated load. Typically measured in tons, the load capacity of each specific ...
GuidelinesSafety

Hoist Chain Container Best Practices

When a hoist is equipped with a load chain to lift or lower a load, there is often excess slack chain hanging from the unit. This slack load chain can interfere with the load, the adjacent load chain, or even ...
GuidelinesSafety

Why Key Personnel Must Know How To Disconnect An Overhead ...

With nearly all overhead cranes powered by electricity, it is imperative that personnel who operate, maintain, or work with these systems know how to cut the power in the case of emergency or maintenance need. That means they need to ...
GuidelinesSafety

For The Safest Operation, Ensure Overhead Crane And Hoist Operators ...

To maximize efficiency and ease of operation many cranes and hoists are designed to be operated intuitively, with wireless remote controls (utilizing radio or infrared signals to relay function instructions to the system) or wired, push-button pendants (also referred to ...