Inspection, Maintenance, and Pre-Operational Checks
Inspection, Maintenance, and Pre-Operational Checks
This domain tests the inspection sequence and removal criteria that keep a crane in service. Expect shift, monthly, and annual inspections, plus wire rope and safety-device checks.
Core rules
- Perform a shift inspection before each use: check fluid levels, leaks, tires/tracks, outriggers, hooks and latches, wire rope, limit switches, LMI, anti-two-block, brakes, horns, and lights.
- Monthly inspections are more thorough and documented; annual/comprehensive inspections are by a qualified person and may require disassembly.
- Remove running wire rope when it meets removal criteria, such as 6 broken wires in one lay for 6×19 rope (or 3 in one strand in one lay), severe corrosion, kinking, bird-caging, or diameter reduction.
- Hooks with cracks, excessive throat opening, or missing latches are removed from service. Never repair a hook by welding.
- Document deficiencies and lock out/tag out until repaired.
Worked example: A monthly inspection finds six broken wires distributed in one lay on a 6×19 running rope. That meets the removal criteria, so the rope is replaced before the next lift, even though the crane still operates.
Traps
- Counting broken wires only on the visible side of the rope.
- Treating a missing hook latch as cosmetic.
- Resetting a limit switch to make the lift instead of correcting the cause.
- Skipping documentation because the inspection was verbal.