OSHA/ANSI Guidelines for Overhead Cranes
Guidelines and Regulations for Overhead Cranes
by: Charlie Pertuit, HCSG Technical Trainer
New Orleans, LA – Many are familiar with the fact that OSHA has specific guidelines for top running overhead cranes in general industry. The OSHA 1910.179 guideline applies to overhead and gantry cranes, including: semi-gantry, cantilever gantry, wall cranes, storage bridge cranes, and others having the same fundamental characteristics. These cranes are grouped together because they all have trolleys and similar characteristics.
Many people, however, are not familiar with OSHA’s requirement that all new overhead and gantry cranes constructed and installed on or after August 31, 1971 shall also meet the design specifications of the American National Standard Safety Code for Overhead and Gantry Cranes, ANSI B30.2.0-1967, and all subsequent updates, which are incorporated by reference as specified in OSHA Sec. 1910.6.
OSHA 1910.6 incorporation by reference states the standards of agencies of the U.S. Government, and organizations which are not agencies of the U.S. Government, which are incorporated by reference in this part, have the same force and effect as other standards in this part. Only the mandatory (i.e., provisions containing the word “shall” or other mandatory language) standards incorporated by reference are adopted as standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
“Basically, OSHA is stating you shall not only follow the OSHA guidelines for Overhead cranes, you shall also follow the applicable American National Standards Institute/American Society of Mechanical Engineers guidelines, in this case B30.2.”
ANSI/ASME B30.2-2016 is the current version of these guidelines and contains specifics on:
Chapter 2-0 Scope, Definitions, References, and Personnel Competence
Chapter 2-1 General Construction and Installation
Chapter 2-2 Inspection and testing
Chapter 2-3 Operator training and Operation
Chapter 2-4 Maintenance Training and Maintenance
Unlike the OSHA guidelines available at OSHA.GOV at no charge, the ANSI/ASME guidelines are provided by ASME for a fee.
