Compliance of Lifting and Handling Equipment

By Marc-André Martineau
Manager and partner at Premium Industrial Group

"I need a compliance certificate for my overhead crane !" 

This is a fairly frequent request, whether for prevention purposes or at the request of the CNESST following an event. 

You may be an owner of lifting equipment who wants to stay compliant. Or perhaps you're responsible for health and safety in your company and have been entrusted with the huge responsibility of ensuring machine compliance. 

In either case, how do you determine whether your overhead crane is compliant? Is it possible to obtain a document certifying compliance, or is this established in some other way? 

In this article, we clearly explain :

- What makes equipment compliant?

- New equipment or existing: two different realities

- What standards must be met?

- How can you ensure that your overhead cranes remain compliant?

It will allow you to focus on your productivity with peace of mind, knowing how to demonstrate the compliance of your lifting equipment at any time.

What determines the compliance of an overhead crane? 

For an overhead crane to be considered compliant, you need to be able to demonstrate, by means of the documents contained in your logbook ¹ , that the equipment has been designed, manufactured, installed, commissioned and maintained in accordance with all applicable standards.

What does it mean in concrete terms? 

In fact, every document related to a piece of lifting equipment is important and must be kept by its owner. This includes design and manufacturing documents, as well as inspection and maintenance records. 

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of documents that should be included in this file :

At design and manufacturing

• The drawings sealed by an engineer
• All the specifications and information on the overhead crane and its components
• The options and accessories included
• The electrical specifications
• The applicable certifications (CSA, CWB, etc.)
• The operating instructions and the maintenance manual
• The warranty documents

At installation and commissioning

• The initial inspection report
• The load test report

Throughout the life of the equipment

• • The inspection reports
  • The maintenance and repair work orders
  • Any modifications made, such as a modernization

Whose responsibility is compliance?

In short, lifting equipment is considered compliant when… 

• The equipment has been designed and manufactured in compliance with current standards. 

• The equipment has been installed and commissioned in accordance with current standards. 

• The device has been inspected and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and current standards. 
  
  
• The owner is able to demonstrate the above with supporting documents.

Some misconceptions about compliance 

Here are some of the misconceptions we sometimes hear about compliance. 

My inspection report says "compliant" on all points. Does that mean my equipment is compliant? 

Not necessarily. The logbook must also contain information about the equipment itself. For example, if structural engineering drawings are not available, how can we prove that the rated capacity shown is the correct one? The equipment could be lifting loads in excess of its actual capacity. 

What's more, an inspection report reveals the condition of the lifting equipment at a frozen point in time. A wrong maneuver performed immediately after the inspection may have compromised the integrity of the equipment. 

I have an inspection certificate. Does this mean my equipment complies? 

False. An inspection certificate simply attests that the inspection was carried out in accordance with standards and by competent personnel. It does not certify the compliance of the equipment itself.

To find out more about the different types of certification available, see the article "Lifting equipment certification: What does it really entail?".

These examples show that overhead crane compliance is not demonstrated by a single document, but by a set of documents kept up to date throughout the service life of the lifting equipment. These documents serve to demonstrate that standards have been closely followed. But what standards are we talking about?

New equipment or existing equipment: two different realities

"Is my overhead crane compliant?" The question is the same in both cases, but the work required to answer it has nothing in common. This is where much of the confusion comes from.

With new equipment, compliance is built. All of the documentation already exists. Your job is to require it in full before final payment, then file it. A sealed drawing or a maintenance manual you fail to claim at that moment often becomes impossible to track down five years later.

With existing equipment, compliance has to be rebuilt. The crane is there, but its history is incomplete: change of ownership, replacement hoist, undocumented modifications, a rated capacity that was never validated by an engineer. Before you can even talk about compliance, you have to answer some basic questions: who built it, in what year, what is its actual capacity, and what modifications has it undergone?

One caution: the dividing line is not age, it is documentation. A three-year-old crane whose hoist was replaced without keeping the new unit's data sheet falls right back into the second category.

What references is overhead crane compliance based on? 

These references do not replace one another, they stack. The law and the regulation set the floor. The manufacturer's instructions are the most precise for a given piece of equipment, because they come from its design calculations. A manufacturer can be more demanding than the regulation. It can never allow less.

For more information, see the CSA Group and CNESST websites.

How can you ensure that your crane remains compliant over time?

If only it were possible to certify lifting equipment as compliant once and for all! But unfortunately, it's a continuous process.

So how can overhead crane owners secure peace of mind and know that they will always be able to demonstrate that their equipment is compliant?

Here are some best practices for maintaining compliance:

Create and maintain a logbook from the outset

As soon as your equipment is installed, set up a file to hold all the documents supplied by the device’s manufacturer.

Check the documents supplied by the manufacturer

Make sure that the manufacturer supplies all the documents required for compliance, whether at the time of installation or modification.

Document all maintenance in the logbook

Every intervention on an overhead crane, whether an inspection, service call or repair, should be documented by a report, work order, invoice or other dated document. Including a copy of each of these documents in the logbook will demonstrate to an inspector that you are maintaining your equipment.

 Operator training belongs in the file 

Section 254.1 of the RSST requires theoretical and practical training delivered by an instructor. That record belongs in the file just as much as your inspection reports. An inspector visiting your plant will ask for both.

Overhead crane compliance: more than just a document

Have you noticed that you're missing documents to make your lifting equipment compliant? Premium Industrial Group can help you in different ways. Here are a few :

Do you need any of these services? You can contact us by clicking on the "Contact a specialist" button at the bottom of the page. One of our experts will contact you to help bring your equipment into compliance.