Statutory inspection and load testing of lifting machines and tackle under the Driven Machinery Regulations

Equipment

Lifting machines — overhead cranes, gantry cranes, hoists, mobile cranes — and lifting tackle — chain and wire-rope slings, webbing, shackles, eyebolts, lifting beams and spreader bars. Regulation 18 of the Driven Machinery Regulations, made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, applies to both.

Obligations

A lifting machine must be load-tested before first use and thereafter at intervals not exceeding twelve months by a registered lifting machinery inspector, with the test recorded in a register; it must also be inspected and serviced at the intervals the manufacturer specifies and at least every six months. Lifting tackle must be inspected by a competent person at intervals not exceeding three months, marked with its safe working load and identification, and recorded in a register. Confirm the current wording of the regulation and any site standard before setting intervals.

What goes wrong

Load tests lapse during busy periods; tackle is used without a current inspection; registers are incomplete at audit; brakes, limit switches and wire ropes deteriorate between inspections; and damaged slings stay in circulation because there is no colour-coding system to take them out.

Inspection

Overhead cranes: brakes, limit switches, hoist rope condition and reeving, hook and latch, long-travel and cross-travel wheels and rails, structure and end stops, electrics and controls. Tackle: wear, elongation, cuts, corrosion, deformation of fittings, legibility of marking. Colour coding under SANS 10388 makes the current inspection period visible at a glance.

Maintenance

Service cranes to the manufacturer’s schedule and keep the service record with the register; replace ropes and brake linings on condition; keep tackle stored off the ground, dry and sorted by inspection status; withdraw and quarantine anything that fails inspection.

Repair and load testing

After any repair to a load-bearing component the machine is load-tested and the test recorded before it returns to service. Load tests are conducted to the applicable standard with calibrated test weights or load cells, and the certificate is filed with the register.

Replacement

Replace tackle rather than repair it; slings and shackles are not repairable items. Replace crane components — ropes, hooks, brakes — at the manufacturer’s discard criteria, and consider replacing a crane where structural deterioration or obsolescence makes continued certification uneconomic.

Umbusso capability

Umbusso maintains, repairs and load-tests overhead cranes and hoists, inspects and colour-codes lifting tackle with a register for the client, and provides rigging crews and mobile-crane supervision for plant lifts. Our own 15-ton overhead crane in Benoni South is maintained under the same regime.

This article is general technical guidance. Intervals, standards and methods must be confirmed against the current regulation, the manufacturer’s documentation and the site standard before they are applied.