Load Handling in the Department of Defense
If you have ever worked with cranes on a Navy Base, you know that it’s one of those places to make you say, “What?”. The US Military has requirements that few, if any, General Contractors would ask you to meet. The Navy’s Weight Handling Equipment Manual is 400 pages long. Most of it’s really just meeting and verification of meeting the requirements. It’s not uncommon to lose a quarter of your first day of work just doing paperwork when you show up on a military base with a crane. They treat hoisting seriously. So what are their standards? Nothing more than what we already do at Eichinger.
Army Crane Manual Requirements
The Army Crane Manual section 16.D addresses “Load Handling Equipment”. The first instruction is…
Inspections of LHE (Load Handling Equipment) shall be in accordance with this Section, applicable ASME standards, OSHA regulations and the manufacturer recommendations.
Eichinger Leads the Safety Standards in Below the Hook Attachments
Check, check, and check. We are rated and designed as OSHA requires. We design to ASME Standards and test beyond the meager 125% requirement in prototyping. We test to 300% to prove our design where ASME only requires 125% as a test from the user. We don’t simply calculate that our items will meet 3:1 as a safety factor, we hire a third party to check our math, then conduct the test. This third party oversight is just one more place where we exceed ASME, OSHA, DOD… everyone.
The ARMY Load Moving Equipment Manual. Link for your perusal.
In the Navy Weight Handling Equipment manual, ASME B30.20 (Below the Hook) is cited for all contractors.
The contractor shall comply with applicable ANSI, ASME, or other appropriate industry/national/international consensus standards (e.g., ASME B30.5 for mobile cranes, ASME B30.22 for articulating boom cranes, ASME B30.3 for tower cranes, ASME B30.8 for floating cranes, ASME B30.9 for slings, ASME B30.16 for overhead hoists, ASME B30.20 for 11-1below-the-hook lifting devices….
Here’s a Link to that manual. Here’s another way they say it even more clearly.
14.9 Below-the-Hook Lifting Devices. Below-the-hook lifting devices shall meet the criteria of ASME B30.20, ASME BTH-1, and OEM requirements. B30.20 and OEM recommendations should be followed. Custom designed pallets, platforms, hoppers, containers, skids, skips, and similar weight-handling structures shall be treated as belowthe-hook lifting devices.
ASME B30.20 and the Department of the Navy
There are seven citations of the ASME in the Navy manual. Where this can be an issue is if you purchase something “rated” to meet OSHA 1926.251, then you try to take it on to a Navy base. Rated is not the same as ASME B30.20. You can have an engineer rated item made of aluminum or even wood, and it will not meet ASME. Carbon steel is the basis of ASME designs found in the BTH-1 design document that goes with ASME B30.20. An engineer could design it to a 175% rating and achieve the 125% test, but it doesn’t meet the 3:1 safety factor required in ASME. This is why you should always purchase an ASME rated Below the Hook attachment. It’s the gold standard and it will keep you free of this challenge with the government. It’s what we deliver here at CraneGear from Eichinger.
Safety Ahead of the Curve
The levels of safety and engineering we deliver with the Germans is state of the art and of the highest standards.
Third party engineering review.
Third party destructive load tests to 300% to ensure zero failures
ISO/EN and ASME B30.20 compliance with the latest standards.
Laser tube CNC cutting for precision and clean welds.
Robotic welds where possible for repeatable quality.
Capacities beyond what’s possible to load in most containers with conventional materials. IE - 3.9 yard trash bins with an ultimate test of 40,000 lbs in the design phase.
For Contractors or Procurement
If you need to meet the latest and most stringent standards in the world, Eichinger and CraneGear have you covered. We even go beyond the requirements and aspire to safety standards developing like limiting the contact between the rigger and the load. Our crane trash bins have automated latches you will not find anywhere else in the US. Same for our telehandler tippers. You never need to get out of the seat and step away from the controls like other brands have you do. From design to operation, Eichinger is the safest attachments brand in the world.
