How Often Should You Service Your Crane?

How often you use your crane will determine how often you should have it inspected.

The CSA Safety Standard B167-96 (for Maintenance and Inspection of Overhead Cranes, Gantry Cranes, Monorails, Hoists, and Trolleys) requires that your cranes are inspected as per the guidelines below.

Standby or Infrequend Service Crane - Annually, must be inspected once a year.
This service class covers cranes that may be used in installations such as powerhouses, public utilities, turbine rooms, motor rooms, and transformer stations, where precise handling of equipement at slow speeds with long, idle periods between lifts are required. Capacity loads may be handled for initial installation of equipment and for infrequent maintenance.

Light Service Crane - Annually, must be inspected once a year.
This service class covers cranes that may be used in repair shops, light assembly operations, service buildeings, light warehousing, etc, where service requirements are light and the speed is slow. Loads may vary from no load to occasional full-rated loads, with 2-5 lifts per hour, averaging 2.6 m (10 ft) per lift.

Moderate Service Crane - Semi-annually, must be inspected twice a year.
This service class covers cranes that may be used in machine shops or papermill machine rooms, etc, where service requirements are moderate. In this type of service, the crane will handle loads that average 50% of the rated capacity, with 5-10 lifts per hour, averaging 3 m (15 ft), not over 50% of the lift at rated capacity.

Heavy Service Crane - Semi-annually, must be inspected twice a year.
This service class covers cranes that may be used in heavy machine shops, foundries, fabricating plants, steel warehouses, container yards, lubmer mills, etc, and standard duty bucket and magnet operations where heavy-duty production is required. In this type of service, loads approaching 50% of the rated capacity will be handled constantly during the working period. High speeds are desirable for this type of service, with 10-20 lifts per hour, averaging 3 m (15 ft), not over 65% of the lifts at rated capacity.

Severe Service Crane - Quarterly, must be inspected four times a year.
This service class requires a crane capable of handling loads approaching a rated capacity throughout its life. Applications may include magnet, bucket, and magnet/bucket combination cranes for scrap yards, cement mills, lumber mills, fertilizer plants, container handling, etc with 20 or more lifts per hour at or near the rated capacity.

Continuous Service Crane - Quarterly, must be inspected four times a year.
This service class requires a crane capable of handling loads approaching the rated capacity continuously under severe service conditions throughout its life. Applications may include custom-designed specialty cranes essential to performing the critical work tasks affecting the total production facility. These cranes must provide the highest reliability, with special attention to ease-of-maintenance features.

Quarterly, semi-annual, and annual inspections should be performed by a crane inspector that has a minimum of 10,000 hours of experience relating to the inspection, maintenance, repairs, and modificaction of equipment. All crane inspectors at Rotor Cranes meet these requirements.

Along with the above inspections, we recommend that your crane operators perform daily inspections. If you ever notice anything during your daily inspection, be sure to give us a call at 1-877-706-7700.

Daily Inspections
Prior to each work shift the crane operator should inspect the crane. This inspection should be documented.

What must be checked during a Daily Crane Inspection?

• All Functional Mechanisms - for maladjustment interfering with proper operation
• All Limit Switches - for operation without a load on the hook
• Lines, Tanks, Valves, Pumps - and other parts of air or hydraulic systems for deterioration or leakage.
• Load Hooks - for deformation and cracks
• Hoist or Load Attachment Chains - including end connections for excessive wear, twist, distorted or stretched links interfering with proper function.
• Wire Ropes and Rope Slings - for excessive wear, broken wires, stretch, kinking, or twisting of ropes and rope slings, including end connections.