Critical Lifting
American Crane manufactures a selection of reliable cranes, hoists, and other types of material handling equipment, along with parts and components for a variety of custom, standard, and nuclear applications.
Industries working with high-value equipment or potentially dangerous loads depend on critical lifting equipment. With no room for error, these applications require critical lifting cranes to handle highly sensitive or hazardous loads. To meet these needs, cranes must feature top-quality designs and construction to facilitate optimal safety, performance, and efficiency. Critical lifts also help lift loads with difficult configurations that could otherwise increase the risk of dropping a load.
Critical Lift Criteria & Procedures
Critical loads or lift operations must meet certain criteria. To begin with, damage resulting from a dropped or mishandled load would need to cause a significant delay in operations. The damage would also need to compromise the operations and safety of a facility now and into the future.
Some critical loads may also consist of significant levels of radioactive materials and other hazardous substances that accidents could release. These and other critical loads may cause serious injury or illness to workers. If workers need to maneuver a load outside of the crane operator’s view, it also qualifies as a critical load.
Other criteria include work requiring multiple cranes to operate simultaneously, along with loads using over 75-80% of the crane’s rated lifting capacity.
Elements of a Critical Lift Plan/Procedure
Critical lift plans consist of several core elements, including:
- Site Examination. This entails a thorough examination of the lifting site, which could involve inspection of the grounds, diagrams, weather conditions, and other factors that could disrupt the lift.
- Equipment Listing and Verification. It’s important to list every piece of equipment required on-site and ensure its arrival in good working condition. This equipment could include the crane itself, along with rigging materials, matting, weather-monitoring equipment such as anemometers, and all legally required paperwork and documentation.
- Detailing Crane Requirements and Setup. Professional crane lifting services may require access to as many as dozens of cranes. Each crane will also come with its own capacity and handling characteristics. Staff must inspect each crane closely to verify its functionality.
- Personnel Listing and Verification. Critical lift plans require a variety of personnel, which typically includes a rigger, operator, signalperson, site supervisor, and lift director.
Critical Lift Services
Common critical lift services include:
Multi-Crane Lifts
If an application uses two or more critical lift cranes to facilitate major lift action, flawless precision and intensive planning are crucial. While these services demand the most from our team, we can still provide them without fail.
Crane Lift Rigging
Some critical lifts may not have much to do with the actual crane used and must use an unusual rigging setup. This atypical designation makes the lift critical and covers a lot of territory.
Get the Critical Lift Services You Need from ACECO
If you require critical lift services for critical loads, the experts at American Crane & Equipment Corporation (ACECO) can meet your specific needs. As a leading manufacturer of critical lift cranes and other cranes and material handling equipment, we can provide consistently great results.
At American Crane, we put perseverance, heart, and integrity into every service we provide. We are ultimately here to serve as your Expert, Craftsman, and Partner in providing you with the most reliable and compatible crane solution for your application. Our in-house resources and experience, along with our integrated approach and breadth of capabilities, enable us to give each customer the right equipment and services based on their individual requirements. We offer customers access to three plants totaling 230,000 square-feet of manufacturing space and a 150-ton lifting capacity. In addition, we have an onsite 200-ton load testing tower and one of the largest floor-type horizontal boring mills located in the Northeastern United States.
To learn more about our critical lifting services and equipment, or to discuss your application’s unique lifting needs, contact American Crane today or request a quote for our products and services.
