How to avoid overhead crane accidents

February 12, 2016 4:01 pm

An analysis on avoiding overhead crane accidents and safety measures taken to avoid such accidents
  An accident is an undesirable event that results in an injury or even causes loss of life if it’s fatal. Most accidents don’t just happen; they are often the result of a string of unfortunate events, including slipups, oversight, mechanical failure, and even bad luck. One of the best ways to avoid overhead crane accidents is to foresee the many safety considerations for crane operations in a planned and thoughtful way.
Safety should be a way of life, a behaviour that needs to be ingrained in the culture of the organisation at all levels and locations.
“ElectroMech follows various safety measures for its cranes to avoid any accident. A variety of cranes, transfer trolley and a scissor lift within ElectroMech plant ensures that it can transfer loads of any type, thus ensuring none of its workers carry heavy loads,” says Tushar Mehendale, Managing Director, ElectroMech Material Handling Systems India Pvt Ltd.
Smoke detectors and proper evacuation routes marked for emergencies make ElectroMech shop floor a safe environment to work in.
ElectroMech ensures that the load swing is restricted to absolute minimum levels and associated accidents. ElectroMech provides proper material handling training to avoid accidents at workplace.
“With EOT cranes it is extremely critical; the operator has the complete equipment understanding, hands-on training, and an alert mind. It is extremely important to not compromise on operating instructions while working with EOT cranes. Compromising on safe working practices is compromising on safety; while we always focus on inbuilt safety in the equipment design it is equally important to ensure equipment’s regular health check through the skilled technicians,” says Abhijeet Patil, Assistant General Manager – Aftermarket, Demag – Terex India Pvt Ltd.
Safety featuresEOT cranes come equipped as a standard with redundant safety electric limit switches as well as mechanical barriers to ensure that the hook path does not stray dangerously out of the intended work envelope. ElectroMech has several electrical interlock systems hardwired in its circuitry which prevents an operator from running the crane in an unsafe manner even if he wishes to do so. Furthermore, by having smooth start and smooth stop functions as standard on all of cranes. “The safety brakes used on the crane are rated for 1 million operations on full load and ensure a lifetime of worry-free duty,” states Mehendale.
Mehendale adds, “Not only do ElectroMech’s end-products incorporate all safety features, but its people are also extremely safety conscious when working on the shop floor while manufacturing cranes as well as when working at the client sites and erecting cranes. As a standard practice, whenever ElectroMech hands over its crane to the end customers for their use, the company instructs them in the safe usage of its cranes.”
“At Demag safety, efficiency and reliability are our guiding principles for every product design. You will find many distinguishing design features in our product design without which the operations could run smoothly, however for us it is important to take care of fatalities not foreseen by our customers,” emphasises Dhaval Gohel, Product Manager, Demag Process Cranes, Terex India Pvt Ltd.Few distinct safety features of Demag are mentioned below:• All fast rotating parts on a trolley are covered with guards for increased safety. • Upon detection of excess temperature of Motors, 3PTC Thermistors trip the motors before getting damaged. • To avoid any kind of drift of load during hoisting, Demag provides torque memory control through inverter. • This inverter also ensures controlled speed through the monitor, any possibilities of free fall of load is detected well in time. • Demag cranes also provide zoning control, to prevent any collisions that could happen in case cranes are likely to interfere during cross-bay operation. • It also provides anti-interference system, for cranes where there’s any possibility of crossing over each other. • It provides safety net on request to prevent accidental fall of a person.• Human protection sensors are provided in case of portal cranes.• Demag also provides entry gate switch in order to cut off crane at the platform; this is to ensure that no one can operate crane from floor in case there is maintenance carried out on top.
All these and many more safety features are packed in Demag EOT cranes depending upon the customer process requirement. “Many times the safety features are not demanded by our customers; however at Demag we will not design any solution which could involve any possibilities of accidents. It is our duty to educate customers of the hazards and help with a preventive cure solution,” concludes Gohel.
****************Compromising on safe working practices is compromising on safety.Abhijeet Patil, Assistant General Manager – Aftermarket, Demag – Terex India Pvt Ltd.*******************
****************Many times the safety features are not demanded by our customers; however at Demag we will not design any solution which could involve any possibilities of accidents.
Dhaval Gohel, Product Manager, Demag Process Cranes, Terex India Pvt Ltd.**************
***************The safety brakes used on the crane are rated for 1 million operations on full load and ensure a lifetime of worry-free duty.Tushar Mehendale, Managing Director, ElectroMech Material Handling Systems India Pvt Ltd.