Happy New Year, check your rigging.

I was setting up a rig last week where the location had house rigging points. I was going to hang about 800 lbs. off a single point. The house technicians were in the process of connecting my chain motor to the point, which consisted of a chain dropping down through a trap door in the ceiling. The tech made a comment that he needed a bigger shackle to connect the motor hook to the "quick link". That comment set off an alarm in my head. I was thinking, what is a quick link doing with the house rigging point? I decided that I needed to inspect the point for myself, all the way to the attachment of the structure. Turns out there was a second quick link used to connect the chain to itself as a choker around a steel beam. The chain was a welded link, but looked like it came from Home Depot and the only identifying mark was a "Canada" stamping. I told the house tech that I would not rig off the point and that it needed to be corrected. Fortunately the tech understood and found the right materials to make the points. The proper materials included wire rope slings with a manufacture tag, forged pin shackles with identifying working load limit, along with a manufacture marking and a burlap wrap for the beam. Now of course every rigging situation is different, but the point is, make sure the materials are appropriate for the job. You should not use items from your local hardware store. One of my hard fast rules is, no products manufactured in China. I stick with respectable and traceable vendors such as Mountain Productions, Peak Trading and McMaster Carr for my rigging supplies. At the end of the day, I am responsible for the safety of everyone, the buck stops with me. Who else has some words of wisdom or a horror story to pass along?

Views: 357

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff Rich on January 9, 2012 at 10:37am

I see the reluctance to use forged shoulder eyebolts all the time.

Permalink Reply by Erich Friend on January 9, 2012 at 11:34am

Quick Links can be loaded-rated (http://www.petzl.com/files/all/en/Products/PRO_comparison/compariso...), so don't classify them all in the same group.  Check to see what the exact product is.  Just like a screw-pin shackle, if you let the link mechanism get loose, it can become deadly.  This is one reason screw-pin shackles are generally safer - the pin can (and should) be secured against rotation.

For more information about link chain load characteristics check out this 4-part article at:

http://theatreface.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chains-for-overhead-lift...

Permalink Reply by John Heinz on January 9, 2012 at 1:45pm

I am aware that there are Quick Links with a Working Load Limit on them, but rarely do you see one with a manufacture marking on them, which is just as important. As to the pin shackles, you touch on an excellent point. Since we do a lot of single point hangs, our company has a policy to tie off pins to the shackle with a nylon zip tie.  A lot of hands consider it a pain to take apart, but I consider it cheap insurance and I know for certain that myself or one of my leads inspected the connections before it went in the air.

Permalink Reply by Matthew Kors on January 9, 2012 at 7:04pm
My rule of thumb, if there is no load rate or you can no longer make out the load rate it gets retired. And in va if it stays up for more than x time period (which is only a few day limit) all rigging hardware gets moused down with wire or ties as per law.

RSS

© 2012   Created by Terry Lowe.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service