Crane Tech was recently recognized by Mosaic with a Gold Award for Excellence In Safety Leadership and Performance for 2015.  “Being a partner with an organization that places such emphasis on safety and recognizes their contractors for maintaining safe conditions is a privilege for Crane Tech,” stated Frank Steffens, Crane Tech’s On-site Safety Consultant for Mosaic’s Mobile Equipment program. “We are happy to be involved with creating a safer workplace by providing training for the men and women of Mosaic. This is our fifth year receiving this award, and we look forward to many more years of providing service.”

As part of the recognition luncheon and awards program, Mosaic Contractor Safety Department asked their contractors to submit a short video of “How Do You Plan for Safety?”  We were able to capture Frank giving a quick overview of our Job Safety Analysis (JSA) when he provides hands-on training at Mosaic facilities.  Click to see the video.  (more…)

For you old timers out there, how many of you can still work out like you did when you were in your twenties? If you have to lift something heavy, do something strenuous, or perform a repetitive motion, chances are you are going to feel it the next day (and maybe for a few days). While we don’t come with a stated design factor (DF) or working load limit (WLL), one of the wonderful things about our bodies, is that with time, they will most likely heal themselves from any stress, even if we push it to our breaking strength.

Now let’s look at a sling. We know that slings are tagged with a WLL according to the hitch type, but intrinsically we also know that they have been (more…)

It’s National Safety Week and the National Fall Prevention Stand Down Week in the USA! While we at Crane Tech applaud and celebrate this week along with thousands of employers across the nation, we think everyone will agree that safety is about more than a one week focus.  It is a factor of day in and day out decisions, sometimes it is about second by second, moment by moment decisions that were made, some of which can impact us greatly or be near misses.

If you have been reading the Hooked On Crane Tech blog for a while, you can tell that we like to re-tell stories that have been told to us by those with years (more…)

As we head towards summer we start thinking about and planning vacations and a family road trip is a common occurrence.  Usually before getting on the road, we take a closer look at the vehicle we will be driving. If we recently had the car serviced, we may just look at the tires and check the oil. If it’s been a while since it was checked out, we may either take the car into the shop to make sure everything is in good working order or, if you are mechanically inclined, you may open the hood to check things out yourself.

When you think about cranes, it’s not much different. Similar to the pre-trip inspection on your vehicle, crane operators should be completing a pre-shift inspection daily (as we talked about in the What is Your First Line of Defense?). However, when it’s time for the annual inspection, this is not something you should take into your own hands. You need a qualified inspector with special knowledge and skills to perform a comprehensive inspection of the entire crane. (more…)

The answer is just “NO.”

“Well I’ve heard it has to be 3x the outrigger float.”

 “I’ve always used 4x times the float… better be safe than sorry.”

“Who cares what size the float is? I go with the crane capacity divided by 5.”

“There are no rules, I just stick whatever I have on hand underneath the pad,”

“I just use the pads that come with the crane, surely that is enough.”

STOP. Just Stop the Madness!

We hate to break it to you, but there are NO safe rules of thumb when it comes to cribbing. Nowhere in OSHA does it say that you will be ok if you use the rule of thumb for cribbing, instead in 1926.1402 OSHA states: that cranes must be (more…)