What Percentage Of Wear Is Allowed On The Beak Of A Hook?
I recently got a promotion at work, and part of my new duties that the manager assigned to me is to inspect all the lifting equipment and the shop crane. I know what I need to look for each morning, but one question that I still want to ask my management is: “What percentage of wear is allowed on the beak of a hook?”
The percentage of wear allowed on the beak of a hook is 15 percent; this wear is measured vertically from the top to the bottom part of the hook. The maximum allowable twist on the beak of a hook is 10 percent; this wear is measured horizontally by comparing the center line of the hook.
OSHA is The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and they state that lifting equipment and lifting gear have to be inspected before use and also periodically. The inspections that the user must conduct include, among other items, beaks on the lifting hooks. Follow this post further to see more research on this topic.
Percentage Of Allowable Wear On The Beak Of A Hook
Experts in the lifting industry agree that the standards that OSHA gives to employers and employees when it comes to the inspection criteria of lifting equipment and lifting gear need to be followed to ensure that only safe hooks are used in lifting operations. We will discuss the maximum percentage of wear for the hook on the lifting machine as well as the hooks on chain slings in this section.
Allowable Wear Percentage On The Beak Of A Safety Hook
The safety hook is another term for the hook that is located on a lifting machine like a crane or hoist. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers code number B30.10 also conforms to the OSHA code and also states that a safety hook must be withdrawn from service when the wear percentage of the hook is more than 10 percent.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, or ASME for short, submitted the B30.10 code for approval to the American National Standards Institute(ANSI), and the B30.10 code was approved and made an official national standard in May 2014. The ASME codes are widely used for guidelines in the engineering and mechanical fields.
Periodic inspections on lifting machines and lifting equipment need to be done by professionals to ensure that the allowable percentage of wear for a safety hook is not being ignored, and whenever this professional person believes that the hook might be unsafe, they have to withdraw the lifting machine from service.
After a machine has been withdrawn from service, a specialized provider has to evaluate the safety hook and test it according to the standards; if the user has reached the maximum allowable percentage of 10 percent, then the safety hook will have to be repaired or replaced. An authorized provider must do a load test certificate to prove that the machine is safe to lift the approved capacities.
Allowable Wear Percentage On The Beak Of Sling Hooks
A wide variety of slings are available on the market for different types of applications. A chain sling is an example of lifting gear with a hook or multiple hooks on it to lift a load with the help of a lifting machine. The OSHA code 1910.184 standard gives a clear indication of the allowable percentage of wear on the beak of these sling hooks.
The 1910.184 standard states that the slings must be withdrawn from service where the hooks are cracked or the beak of the hook is bent open more than 15 percent or in cases where the beak of the hook is twisted more than 10 percent.
It means that when you do a visual inspection, you will look at the hook, and if you see that the hook is bent downwards (vertical), the wear must not be more than 15 percent. The same principle applies when you see that the hook is bent sideways(horizontal), then the wear must not be more than 10 percent.
Inspection Requirements- Allowable Wear Percentage Of Hook
Whenever lifting machines are used for lifting goods or materials, the operator must take great care to ensure that the lifting machine and the lifting gear are safe for the intended purpose. The inspection criteria that the machine operators and slinging personnel must follow will include inspections of the safety hooks and the sling hooks.
The inspections that the operators and the riggers do on the hooks of the lifting machine and the slings are pre-use inspections and are done before the use of the lifting machines or the slings. If the person sees abnormal wear, they have to withdraw the lifting machine or sling from service.
You might ask what happens if an operator or rigger misses something on a visual inspection; that is why there are also inspections from a designated professional that need to take place periodically. If the percentage of wear on a hook’s beak is reached, it will be withdrawn from service and marked as suspect.
The suspect lifting machine or slings hooks will then be measured to see if it is still conforming to the standards and codes from OSHA, ASME, and ANSI and if it doesn’t, it needs to be repaired or replaced.
Conclusion
It is evident from the information in this post that the maximum percentage of wear on the beak of a safety hook is 10 percent; this applies if the wear is downwards or sideways. The maximum percentage of wear on the beak of a sling hook is 15 percent for downward wear and 10 percent for sideways wear. It is according to ASME and OSHA standards, respectively.
The OSHA, ASME, and ANSI requirements clearly state that the operator must do visual inspections before using a lifting machine or sling. The Lifting machine and slings must also be periodically inspected by a designated professional, and corrective measures taken if items look suspect. I learned a lot from my research and hoped that it helped you as well.
