The broadcast is now starting. All attendees are in listen-only mode. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to PCI's webinar series. Today's presentation is Rigging Equipment Recommended Inspection and Maintenance. I'm Becky Masaggia, the Education Manager at PCI, and I'll be your moderator for this session. Before I turn the controls over to your presenters for today, I have a few introductory items to note. Next slide. Earlier today, we sent a reminder email to all registered attendees. The email contained a webinar attendance sign-in sheet, a guide to downloading your Certificate of Continuing Education, and a PDF of today's presentation. The handouts are also available now and can be found in the handouts section located near the bottom of your GoToWebinar toolbox. If there is more than one listener at your location, please circulate the attendance sheet and send the completed sign-in sheet back to PCI. Attendance sheet only needs to be used if you have multiple people watching on one device. If you are the only person at your location, there is no need to complete the attendance sheet as we already have your information. If you cannot download the handouts, please email PCIMarketing at marketing at pci.org as shown on your screen. All attendees are in listen-only mode. The GoToWebinar toolbox has an area for you to raise your hand. If you raise your hand, you will receive a private chat message from me. If you have a question, please type it into the questions pane. I will be keeping track of questions and read them to the presenters during the Q&A periods. Also, a pop-up survey will appear after the webinar ends. Today's presentation is also being recorded and will be uploaded to the PCI eLearning Center. PCI has met the standards and requirements of the Registered Continuing Education Program. We can offer 1.5 PDH for this presentation. Credit earned on completion of this program will be reported to RCEP. A Certificate of Completion will be issued to each participant. As such, this does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be approval or endorsement by RCEP. With hundreds of attendees for our webinars, it's impractical to prepare individual certificates. PCI, therefore, all attendees will download their certificates from RCEP.net within 10 days. AIA credit is not being offered for this presentation. Our presenters today are Carl Harris, FPCI, the Vice President and Co-Founder of Carl Harris Company, Incorporated, a specialty contracting firm that has been a PCI Certified Erector in all categories. Carl has been active with PCI since 1999, is the Lead Auditor for the Certified Erector Program, has co-chaired the Erector Committee, and chaired the Certified Erector Committee. He currently serves on the Tolerance Committee, Personal Certification Committee, Erector Safety Task Group, and a Quality Insurance Supplier Committee. And Mike Wolfe, FPCI, is the President and Owner of Wolfe Safety Consulting. He has been a member of PCI since 2007, serving on 11 different committees and currently is the Chairman of the PCI Impartiality Committee and Chairman of the Quality Activities Council. He was instrumental in developing the QA Supplier Committee and has created multiple education products for members, including the Coil Insert Alert Webinar, Ring and Clutch Inspection Webinar, and Rigging Inspection Criteria. So with that, I will turn it over to Carl and we can begin our presentation. Thank you very much, Becky. We really appreciate it. This webinar is brought to you not only by the Marketing and Education, but also the Quality Suppliers Committee. We are the ones that put this together. I want to welcome everybody to this webinar. The goal of this webinar is we're going to be going over the common types of rigging equipment, the purpose of the inspections, inspections, procedures, and criteria for common types of rigging equipment. That would include tagging and marking, frequency and methods of inspection, along with some OSHA criteria and tables for wear, along with maintenance. Now, this presentation is focused on several common types of rigging equipment, what is required for identification, inspection, and some of the use criteria, including things to be cautious of and how to maintain your rigging. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of every condition or use of rigging hardware. We would expect for you to reference the standards as recommended by the manufacturers. So we have a number of learning objectives. We hope to help you identify common types of rigging equipment and some of their terms. We want you to know the identification of appropriate OSHA and ASME safety standards that are applicable to rigging equipment, the identification of inspection criteria for that common rigging equipment, the identification of common hazards and risks associated with rigging equipment, and the identification of appropriate actions necessary for proper handling or removal from service when indicated to ensure the integrity and safety of the rigging equipment that we're using. We want you to know that the inclusion of manufacturers or their brands by this presentation does not constitute endorsement by PCI, but we know that they are common manufacturers and common terms used throughout our industry. Here's some common rigging equipment. Types of rigging equipment covered in this webinar are those made from alloys, those made like alloyed steel chain, wire rope, metal mesh, natural or synthetic fiber rope, both conventional three-strand construction, and synthetic web, nylon, polyester, or polypropylene, identified by OSHA 1910.183D and 1926.251A6. We want you to please note that this presentation is geared towards these particular rigging equipment and OSHA rules. Coil lifting systems and ring clutch webinar, which were alluded to in Mike's work that he has done with the supplier group, is located on PCI's e-learning center and can be found separately. Again, that's the coil lifting system and ring clutch webinar that we have already presented and recorded. Common rigging equipment is governed by a number of applicable standards. OSHA 1910, general industry, OSHA 1926, construction, and ASME 30.9, which deals with these. These three sources are really prevalent in our industry, but we're weighing on basically the two. ASME 30.9, which has to do with slings, and OSHA 1910.184, which is occupational safety and health standards, material handling, and storage of slings. But also, OSHA 1926.251 is the safety and health regulations for construction and material handling. Now, for these OSHA rules, they're U.S. public documents, so you can go to www.ecfr.gov. CFR stands for the Code of Federal Regulations, and type in the standard in the search bar and download or print the rule. Now, as for ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers standard, you would need to purchase a copy if you're interested in reviewing it. So quickly, if we were to look at this chain, we could start off as a pop quiz. Is this chain in compliance? Take a quick look. We'll talk about rigging requirements, and we'll come back to this picture and give you the answer at the end. So some preliminary definitions. If we look in the upper left, you'll see that that's a basket hitch. A basket hitch distributes a load between two legs of a sling. When using a basket hitch, the load is cradled by running the sling underneath the load, and then attaching both the eyes of the sling separately to the hook. We also, in the upper right hand, have an endless sling. These slings that are made with a continuous loop formed by joining the ends of the webbing or table together with a load-bearing splice. Another thing that we're going to talk about is the rope lay, both the right hand and the left hand rope lay. The rope lay signifies the direction of rotation of the strands of a wire rope, left or right, and the lay length is the distance measured along a rope or table in which the strand makes one complete rotation around the rope or table axis. Other preliminary definitions is the eye splice. An example you see before you, there are three versions. These come from Mozilla's guide. There's the cable lay sling, which is a type of sling made from a cable that is laid in a elliptical pattern around the core of a rope. This cable is twisted of seven individual wires that are twisted together to form a strand. The strands are twisted together to form the cable. The core of the rope is usually made of synthetic fiber, such as nylon or polyester. So, as we start to look at the inspection of rigging equipment, we must know that we must visually inspect all rigging equipment prior to use of any shift, and it may be necessary during the use to ensure that it is being used properly. So, before being put into service, before each shift, and as necessary during use. Defective rigging should be removed from service and the job site. It should be properly tagged and removed for repair or rendered inoperable and discarded. All rigging equipment, whether in use or in storage, must be properly tagged. Rigging equipment, when not in use, shall be removed from shall be removed from the immediate work area as not to present a hazard to other employees. Furthering the inspection of rigging equipment, OSHA 20-1926-251-B6 and ASME B30.9 says that a thorough periodic inspection of slings in use shall be made on a regular basis to determine a number of things. The frequency of the sling use, the severity or service of the conditions it's being used, the nature of the lifts that it's being used in, and experience gained in the service life of slings used in similar circumstances. A thorough inspection shall be done at any time when those who are involved with lifting request an inspection. Periodic inspections shall not be at intervals greater than every 12 months. The employer shall make sure and maintain a record of the most recent month of the annual inspection in which each sling was thoroughly inspected and shall make a record available for examination. So this rigging webinar will help you to become a competent person or an educated person on how to look for those rigs. Before we start our next section, and I turn it over to Mike for alloyed steel chains and such, are there questions in regard to the initial summary of this webinar? Are there any questions? At this time, we have no questions. Okay, well there are going to be other opportunities after each section to ask a question. And then at the end, if something comes to mind, we'll also have some time for questions. So at this time, Mike, I would turn it over to you to start the section on alloyed steel chains. Go ahead, Mike. Okay, thank you very much, Carl. It's a pleasure presenting for everybody today. Rigging inspection is such a vital part of safety within precast. So what we are going to dive into next is alloyed steel chain. And chains come in various different grades, which are meant for different uses. For overhead lifting, only grade 80 chain can be used for rigging. Or larger than that. So grade 80, grade 100, or grade 120 can be used. Note that grade 80 chains may be marked with numbers on them, as you can see in the slide here. It could be marked with a number 8, a number 80, or an 800. But all three of those numbers reference to that grade 80 chain. This is very important. We as precasters and erectors just don't want to go down to our local hardware store and grab a log chain and start lifting with it. It has to be that correct grade. Next slide. Okay. So as you can see here, the barrel of each link should list the grade of the chain. As mentioned in the previous slide, grade 80 may be marked with an 8, 80, or 800. But all chains used for lifting require identification tags. And that is what we are going to talk about next. So OSHA standards do govern this criteria. Under 29 CFR 1910.185E1, alloy steel chain slings shall have a permanently affixed durable identification stating the size, grade, rated capacity, and the length. Also under 1926.251, it also identifies that you have to have the manufacturer on that tag. Under those regulations 1910.184, hooks, rings, oblong links, pear-shaped links, welded or mechanical coupling links, or all other attachments when used with alloy steel chains have to have the rated capacity at least equal to that chain. So make sure we're looking for those tags anytime we are using those chains. 1910.185 deals with proof testing. So the pre-caster, the erector shall ensure that before use, each new repaired or reconditioned alloy steel chain sling, including all welded components in the sling assembly, have to be proof tested by the sling manufacturer or an equivalent entity. The employer shall retain a certificate of the proof test and make sure that it's available for anyone who asks for that. Ocean Standards 1910.184 also talks about alloy steel chain slings and what to look for. So we want to inspect for any cracked or deformed links, coupling links, or any other components that have that damage. You have to remove it from service immediately. Whenever we're at any point of the chain link exceeds that shown in table H1 of the OSHA standards, and that OSHA standard is the construction standard, it's 1926.251B5 has the table H1. And you can reference that table, and that tells you how much wear you can have on each chain link. If it exceeds that table, you have to remove it from service. Now, some manufacturers have created separate tools, such as the gauge you see in this photo, and they're available to help chain wear. You can also mic them, lots of different ways to look at chain wear. But it's so important to inspect that chain link by link. But when you're doing so, make sure you don't pinch your fingers. I have had inspectors actually get injured by inspecting the chain, which you do not want. Alloy steel chains of grades 80, 100, or 120 are designed to elongate up to 20%. This is used as an indicator that the rigging has been overloaded. In other words, you can visually see them start to stretch. Once that stretch is discovered, the rigging has to be taken out of service and removed. Even if it falls under that 20%, the minute you see stretch of any chain, we want to take that out of service. So, how to inspect? You want to collapse that chain to perform link by link inspection of all the surfaces. Items to note when inspecting are corrosion or wear, either from those links rubbing against each other or from links rubbing against other objects. So, alloy steel chain inspection, we are going to look for any damage on those links. Damage to different areas of the chain can reduce the capacity of that entire chain. Therefore, you have to thoroughly inspect it. If you look at the figure to the right, the outside long edge of the link is in compression when that chain is engaged. In this situation, damage on the inside long edge or the outside short edge, which are in tension, are the most immediate concerns. You want to look for any gouges in those areas. You want to inspect that entire link. Hook on our chain. So, we have to inspect every single item of that chain assembly and hook inspection is a big part of that. Slings shall be removed from service if hooks are cracked or have been opened more than 15% of the normal throw opening measured at its narrowest point. Or if they are twisted more than 10 degrees from the plane of the unbent hook. You want to check for wear and deformation. Again, any twisting. And of course, any excessive wear, nicks, cracks on links or the hooks. Twisting of that hook. If the hook includes a safety clip, make sure that it is working correctly. One thing to keep in mind is if your throat latch is not contacting that tip of the hook any longer, more than likely that hook has been stretched. And therefore, you want to take it out of service. Or someone could have put the wrong throat latch on that hook. Which I have seen happen also. But it's of concern and you want to take that out of service and figure out exactly what is going on. So, this photo shows the location and degree allowed for twisting. Rule of thumb for precasters and erectors is if you can visually see a twist in that hook, don't take chances. Just take it out of service. Get it inspected by that competent person. Don't continue using that hook. Next slide. Mike, I think now would be the time that we would ask for any questions on that part. Yes. Are there any questions? We did have one question come in. Are there any certifications available to qualify a competent inspector of rigging equipment? That's a good question. I know some suppliers, Crosby has got some different classes out there. Many precasters and erectors that I know actually rely on their supplier and their competent people to do that annual inspection. And being your supplier, many times they do that as courtesy. Carl, do you have anything out there, any classes you know of? Mike, I think that you hit on it. It's the manufacturers of the products that are offering those training classes that are providing not a nationally recognized certification, but they are both training and testing to make sure that the knowledge has been received and checked. So I think manufacturers are the best way. So take a look at the makers of your chains, of your sling hardware or provider hooks. So that would be my suggestion too, Mike. Okay. Any other questions, Becky? I think this is a joke, but somebody asked how our ELPAC is. We'll ignore that question for now. It's probably one of my old friends back in Wisconsin messing with me a little bit. So yeah. Rigging, let's focus on rigging. That's all the questions at this time. Okay. Thanks, Mike. With questions like that, maybe I'll pack a lunch. But anyway, thank you, Mike, for that part on chains and hooks. Yeah. Now you're going to talk about wire rope, correct? I am, my friend. Thank you very much. Thank you. So now we're going to start moving into some of the common lifting devices that we're using, and mostly the wire rope. 1910.184F1 and 1926.251C16. So we have both general industry and construction. So whether or not you're in the plant or you're in the field requires a permanently affixed and legible identification that indicates the recommended safe working load for the types of slings that you're being used, as well as the safe working loads on which they're based, and the number of legs, if more than one. So if we take a look at this photograph, we're seeing it talking about the working load limit. So if we look at this tag, we see that when it's vertically, when we're using it eye to eye, it's got a 5.6 ton working load limit. When we use it in a choker configuration, it's 4.1 US tons. But when we put it in a basket, it's now almost double that of the vertical lift at 11 US tons. And when we put two together at 45 degrees, 7.9 tons. At 30 degrees, 5.6 tons. So those requirements say that you must have a tag. So the first thing that we're going to look for as we start to examine our rigging, does it have the proper tag on it? And I've often asked, what if a tag comes off? If you're right in the middle of a lift, the tag comes off. Well, the rule allows for you to immediately re-tag that. So you can re-tag that as soon as the lift is over. Just because the tag came off doesn't mean that it's not usable. But if it's not, the next time it's used, if it's not properly tagged, it can't be used. So please, please note that if the tag comes off, you need to immediately replace it. Because the next lift you make without identification on that rigging is not an acceptable lift. So we should always follow the manufacturer's safe working loads, the tag and capacity chart for the safety working limit. 1910184F3, the safe operating temperatures, talk about when it's based on and whether or not your wire rope has fiber or non-fiber core. If a fiber core is used, you need to remove from service if it's exposed to a temperature that is too high or too low. And for a non-fiber core, refer to the sling manufacturer's recommendation. So please take a look at these temperatures. And if you're in an area where you're using slings that are going to be higher than that, then please take a look at it. Now, I know that the photograph there really doesn't speak to the core of the safe working load. But the same wires that are used on a crane lifting line are the same similar wire rope slings or wire rope being used. So as we move along, as we start to look at a wire rope splice, 1926251C4I says that an I-splice can be made in any wire rope and it shall not have less than three full tucks. That has to do with how the wires are tucked together before the sledge is put on there. However, this requirement shall not operate to preclude the use of any form of splice or connection that shall be shown to be as efficient, but that is not otherwise prohibited. It goes on to talk about 1926251C4II that says except for I-splices in the ends of wires and for endless rope slings, each wire rope used in hoisting or lowering or even pulling loads shall consist of one continuous without knot or splice rope. So just to complete that, a complete tuck consists of passing a strand pair over a strand and under two strands in the body of the rope. Pull the strands through to repeat the opposite pair, tucking straight down the body of the rope. Now that's if you're building the splice. You shouldn't be able to see that in the sledge that's on there. So moving on to wire rope inspection. We want to make sure that you do not use a rope, a wire rope that is less than eight, that is any length of eight diameters, the number of visible broken wires exceeds 10% of the total number of wires. So what we're saying is that in any length of eight diameters, so if you have, if you're using a three-quarter wire rope and within that six-inch, any six-inch length of that wire rope, that the total number of broken wires exceeds 10% of the wires or that you see signs of excessive wear or corrosion or defect, we need to pull those out of service. 1910 says, 1910-184-F5I says that any 10 randomly distributed broken wires in any one rope lay or five broken wires in any strand in one rope lay. So that's when it needs to be taken out of service. And again, a lay is any time it takes a strand of wire rope to make a continuous turn around the lay. And so when checking for broken wires or other damage, do not open up the wire rope with your hands or an object. Don't try to put a spike in there and open it up. We're looking at it, at the rope as it lays. All right, so in the picture up above, we can see a couple of broken strands within the wire rope. And so we would want to, we would want to look at that. Again, we're not opening up to check in because as we open those up, we could harm the wire rope itself. Wire rope kinking. 1910-184-F5-3I says you should immediately remove wire rope from service if any of the following conditions are present. Kinking, crushing, bird caging, or any damage resulting in distortion of the wire rope structure. Now we know some things could be dropped on our wire rope. Our wire rope could be used improperly and cause kinking. So we want to make sure that we are viewing those and as we inspect the wire rope through its entire length for any of that. This is a picture of wire rope bird caging. A bird cage caught is usually caused when there's a sudden release of tension and the resultant rebound of the wire rope is usually from an overloaded condition. These strands and wires will not return to their normal position. They will stay like that. Bird caging is very easy to spot. 1910-184-F5-3I tells us that we must remove wire rope from service if any bird caging exists. So we also talk about caging. Crushing. So if we look at this wire rope here, it appears that something has crushed or something has been laid across something heavy that has damaged that wire rope and it caused it to open up. 1910-184-F5-3I says that we should immediately remove wire rope from service if any of the following conditions are present. Like I said earlier, kinking, crushing, bird caging, or other damage resulting from the distortion of the wire rope. So one way to help us check this is we can use a micrometer to measure the rope diameter and compare it to the manufacturer's specification. The method to measure the wire rope is on this next slide. So if we take a look and if we're going to mic this cable, we want to go from the outside round edges of opposite side of the cable. Don't measure from the flat. This will always have a failure rate because it's much narrower there than it is the correct way. This shows you the proper method to measure the diameter of a rope. And in case I confused you on where the rope wear is based on, we know that rope wear comes from loading, bending, and the number of times in which we've put it in a choker or some other kind or the number of cycles that we've used that. And so the frequency of inspection is based on the way the rope is used. If wire ropes are undergoing heavy loads that get close to their intended safe limit, or that we're bending the rope, or the number of cycles in which we're using the rope, the rope could wear faster. So the sling issues to inspect is we need to inspect for any change in the rope diameter as a criteria for its retirement. We need to check for wear in the areas where the rope either travels through a snatch block or the eyes at each end where they contact the eye of a shackle or a hook. And then we need to look at where the wire tends to wear if it's flat on the outer strands, especially when it travels over drums or through those shivs that we talked about. Any point of friction is a location for greater wear, and that we need to be aware of those. You know, wire ropes are not use it, hang it up, forget about it. Wire ropes and chains need to be lubricated per their manufacturer's recommendation to protect them from corrosion. So you can either apply by brush, spray, or dip if you'd like. It needs to be on the environment and the way you use your rope or alloy chain. This is one thing that's often forgotten. So a couple of notes about wire rope slings. 1926.251C in sections 6 through 12 says that slings shall not be shortened with knots, bolts, or makeshift devices. That legs or other sling areas shall not be kinked. That basket hitches require a balance load. That you need to pad or protect slings as they bend across sharp edges of loads. You need to prohibit or prevent shock loads when you can. And do not pull slings when they're pinched or under a load. You may see a worker try to just jerk a sling out from under there. That can do a lot of damage to the rope. Wire rope shall not be secured with knots, except on haulback lines, on scrapers, and that's not what we're doing. Except for eye splices in the ends of wires or for endless rope slings, each wire rope used in hoisting or lowering or pulling loads shall consist of one continuous piece without knot or splice. So as we talk about wire rope slings, wire rope slings from 1926-251C section 13, 1-I through 3-I, says the cable laid 6x9 and 6x36 slings must have a minimum clear length of 10 times the rope diameter between the splices or the end fittings. So I know I've seen some rigging that it's really short, but remember that you should never use a sling in which the minimum clear length is not 10 times the rope diameter. Again, if you're using a 1-inch wire rope, the distance between there should be no less than 10 inches. So we need to do that because that helps develop the full strength of the cable by having the number of lays throughout that wire rope sling. Now wire rope slings are also made of braided slings. And again, the minimum clear length to use for a braided sling is 40 times the rope diameter between the loops or the end fittings. Now these aren't as common in what we're used to using in our industry, but they are out there. So the difference, again, in cable laid, 10 times, in braided, 40 times. So it's able to develop the full strength of the cable. So wire rope slings continuing, this is a photo of an example of an endless sling. So this can be cable laid or strand laid grommets in these endless slings. You might see these as they're being used with ring clutches or other activities, but it gives you a full use. But when you look at this, this sling cannot be less. The full circumference of this length has got to be 96 times its diameter, right? So that circumference, if that's a one inch choker like the example I've been using, right, that sling needs to be eight feet in diameter to make up its full strength. So before I turn it over to Mike in the next section, are there any questions in regard to wire rope slings? Yes, we have quite a few questions came in. First one is how can we test wire rope in the field? You can't test wire rope in the field. It's got to be tested by either the manufacturer or a certified tester of that. And we're finding that in that, and if it's not tagged immediately once the tag is left, you cannot re-tag a wire rope sling without having it be tested. So the thing to do is to protect the tags. The only time that it's actually been, that I've found in our company, is that it has to be a really large sling, inch and a half or better, before it makes sense to spend the money to have the wire sling tested. It's just not efficient. So keeping your slings well-maintained and well-inspected will keep you from having to re-test the sling. So that's my opinion. Mike, have you seen anything other than that? No, I agree with you, Carl. Relying on certified laboratories to test and the manufacturer, yes. We're teaching in section and not the testing of those. So yeah, it can be done, but it can be quite expensive. So it's best to keep track of that. So Becky, another question? Yes. What is the typical safety factor associated with the rigging equipment? Say wire rope or sling or a hook, do they all have different safety factors or is it one universal factor? Mike, I think it's different based on ASME, the 30 series, each one has a different safety factor. So, Mike, do you happen to know what that safety factor is for rigging? Yeah, they range, like what I'm going to get into next dealing with metal mesh and some synthetics is it's two and a half, one and a half. It depends on the ASME and the OSHA standards. But there is a safety factor built into all rigging, obviously. Good engineering question probably came from a good engineer. So it varies as Carl was saying. And next question, excessive could be subjective. Could you send a worn wire back to the manufacturer for testing? So again, we've talked about any known deformity, right, that you're better off to go ahead and take it out of service, measure the outside. So if it's broken wires, but yeah, that you can send it back to the manufacturer for testing, but that's going to come at a cost. So and the cost of keeping something in service longer than it needs to be could be catastrophic. So again, checking for those deformities, and that is a hand over hand reach, not unlike what Mike was talking about with the link by link check of chains, the same thing needs to be done with wire rope slings. It has got to be an inch by inch view of the cable. And again, if they're broken wires, you're going to find them pretty, pretty quickly or a crushing or deformity in the wire rope or the attachment. If I may add also, Carl, in regards to that, I have seen videos and testing laboratories that have proven through analysis that that deformity and where that tear, that cut, or that broken strand is, that is going to be the failure point. So based off of OSHA standards, 10% of wire strand can be broken. That's all came from that testing and engineers. One additional comment I would like to make is wire rope slings, there is criteria for how many broken wires you can have, and I know Carl covered that. One thing to be aware of is even if you have one broken wire on a sling, I've heard precasters, erectors, call them sling term choker, chokers, or choker wires, if your erectors have cloth gloves or bare hands with that rigging and they run their hand over that one broken wire, that can be stitches and a trip to the emergency room. So just something to keep in mind, those broken wires and inspecting can prevent injuries to one hand only. Okay, next question is when wire ropes are retired, how may they be used? Should they be only sent to the recycling center and melted down? That's a really good question, and maybe something that I'm guilty of, because we use slings, we mark them not for use for lifting. We may use them to lock up large pieces of equipment, right, with large locks, but they absolutely cannot be used for lifting, pulling, or anything that's mechanically. So again, I've seen people forge them into knives, I've seen people do a number of things with them, but they should never be used for lifting, and so unless you've got a program that paints them bright pink that says all our bright pink slings cannot be used for lifting, you run the danger of having them on your premises. You know, I've seen people take rigging out of service and put it in the back of a pickup truck and then have an inspector come by and say, this rigging doesn't look like it's taken out of service because there's other rigging in the truck. So I think we have to be really careful if you're not immediately destroying the rigging by either cutting the eyes open or otherwise cutting the rigging in half or something that actually takes it out of service. But please know, and that's why I said, we're guilty because some of our smaller slings we use to lock up welder machines, but never for lifting. And so that's a confession on my part. Mike, any comment? No, I agree with you, and I did CFA audits of directors, and they had that sling off to the side or that chain off to the side, and no, we are using that, but there was no taking nothing on it, and you have to clearly identify and agree 100% with you, Carl. Painting it is probably the only way you can make sure they won't use that. And taking the tag off, because again, one of the key things, and when I do those field audits also, that if a sling is in use without a tag, then it hasn't been inspected. That is the easiest way. Now, there are a lot of handy ways to protect the sling tag. Some people use the same colored inspection tape they use when they're inspecting their rigging to tape the tag up to one of the sledges or knots of the wire rope so that they know it's been inspected, it's got the right color tape on it, it also protects the tag from being hung up while the other wire ropes are being threaded through the eye or something like that. But that is the easy thing to be caught on and be nailed on, because to the field person out there, a one-inch cable looks like an inch and an eighth or seven-eighths. Without the tag, how do we know they're using the proper sized rigging for the lift? Becky? Okay. Next question, besides ASME and 1910 through 26 provisions, is there another recommended literature an engineer could use to design provide rigging for precast concrete use? No, I am not aware. ASME in the 30 series handles all below-the-hook lifting devices. And so between OSHA 1910, the general industry standard, and 1926, the construction standard, those are the things that things should be tested to and should be inspected through, as well as the manufacturer's recommendation. Mike? I agree, absolutely. Next question, when you talk about the safety factor is already included, do we need to factor the working load? Absolutely not. The working load, the working load is the, the safety load is the failure load. You don't want to ever get close to that safety factor, right? Whatever that safety factor is, Mike talked about it, maybe it's one and a half, maybe it's two and a half, maybe it's four. The working load is the law in regard to the way that that rope should be used. And the tag that I showed earlier in regard to the working load limit, that each one of those shows the working load limit, that is the absolute load, and anything above that load is not to be tolerated. We need to stay within those working load limits, but understand that above that working load limit is an engineered safety factor, right? Because there could be an unanticipated load that occurs there, but you should not count on that. You should never use rigging outside its working load limit. Mike, any comments? Oh, sorry. I agree. No, absolutely. What we have been here to the WLL and never exceed that and get into the engineered safety factors. Okay, Becky, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I was like, I apologize. So this is the last question in this section. There's some people with a hand raised that I'll reach out to to see if they have questions, but to remove a sling from service, can't you just remove the tag? Yes, you can. If you're not, yes, you can. That's the most obvious way, but you need to move it from the premises. Some people have a recycle bin or recycle barrel that is marked out of use, do not use. And if you're, you know, I mean, that is a smart way to do it, to remove the tag. If you're confident that your employees would never use a piece of rigging without the tag, because that could come back and bite you. If someone was to catch you or you to say, no, that's out of service, it doesn't have a tag. They walk over to the rigging that you're using. They see that there's a tag missing. So you may need to do something more than that. Oh, and Carl, I think you recommended the best practice there too, by painting that rigging red or pink or whatever is probably a best practice that I've seen precasters and rectors used to mark defective rigging. I've even seen red danger tape tied to it, but then as a tendency to come off, but you want to clearly identify more than likely to eliminate opportunity of confusion. But if your policy is like Carl said, removing that tag and that means that's bad, it's defective. Then yeah, as Carl alluded to, make sure your policy is solid on that. Yep. And that's all the questions we have at this time. Well, thank you. That was a great, great group of questions. I don't mean to throw them aside or anything. These are questions that your own employees or your own riggers may already have, but when you are, and PCI really wants you to train your riggers and test your riggers that they're absorbing all that you're teaching them. So thank you very much. That was really a great, great section. Mike, I would turn it over to you for the next section. Okay. So what we're going to talk about next are slings. We're going to talk about some metal mesh slings and natural and synthetic rope and natural and synthetic web slings. They're all pretty commonly used within precast producer plants and precast erectors, but we'll start off with the first one, metal mesh slings, which are not that common. When Carl and I first presented this in person, I asked for a raise of hands, how many people actually use metal mesh slings? And I think one in the audience raised her hand. But I have seen them in use primarily within precast shops where we put a lot of rebar, a lot of metal in our pieces and our elements, and that is a good use of metal mesh slings. They can be used in a vertical basket hitch or a choker hitch. And yes, they aren't that common on the erection side, but they do help with excessive wear when handling metal. Under the OSHA standard 1910-184, each metal mesh sling has to have permanently affixed to a durable marking that states the rated capacity for a vertical basket hitch. That marking is actually etched into the handle. So that's where you can find that marking. So reasons why you would have to remove a metal mesh sling are under 1910.185. So you want to immediately remove a metal mesh sling from service if there is a broken weld or a broken braze joint along the sling edge. If there is a reduction in wire diameter of 25% due to abrasion or 15% due to corrosion. If there is a lack of flexibility due to distortion of that fabric. If there is distortion of the female handle so that the depth of that slot is increased more than 10% or distortion of either handle so that the width of the eye is decreased more than 10%. So in other words, 15% reduction of the original cross-sectional area of metal at any point around that handle eye, you want to take it out of service. And of course, if you see any distortion, if it's out of plane. So if you're looking at this metal mesh sling and it seems distorted, that you see some rust, some corrosion, some wear, take it out of service, get it re-inspected is the safe way to go. Okay. So use of metal mesh slings. Metal capacity at least equal to the mesh, load has to be distributed across the width of that mesh. We still want to protect from sharp edges because they can damage that wire. Although it's more durable than synthetic, there still is an opportunity for that. And we still have to be aware of temperature ranges. So under 1910.185, again, states handle shall have a rated capacity at least equal to that metal mesh and exhibit no deformation after proof testing. The load must be evenly distributed, as I said. Even though it's metal, you have to be aware of temperature extremes. So under 1910.184 G7, metal mesh slings that are not impregnated with elastomers may be used in that temperature range from negative 20 degrees to up to 550 degrees without decreasing the working load limit. While metal mesh slings impregnated with polyvinyl chloride, PVC, or neoprene may be used for operation, are only used in temperature ranges from zero to 200 degrees. So you have to know exactly what type of metal mesh sling you have if you're working in extreme temperature ranges. For any operations outside those temperature ranges, you want to get a hold of the sling manufacturer for their recommendations. On 1910.184, all new and repaired metal mesh slings, including handles, shall not be used unless they are proof tested by the manufacturer or an equivalent entity to at least one and a half times their rated capacity. Elastomer impregnated slings shall be proof tested before they are coated. Okay. So natural and synthetic rope is what we're going to talk about next. They have to also have a permanently affixed legible marking like all of the rigging we've been talking about. 1926 and also 1910 state rated capacity working low limits must be indicated by permanently affixed and legible identification markings prescribed by the manufacturer for the type of hitch and the angle which it is used for, the type of fiber used and the number of legs. Also defines a tape line as a rope and that's usually fiber attached to a lifted load for purposes of controlling that load. And it controls it from spinning or moving perpendicular used to stabilize also a bucket sometimes or even a magnet attached to a crane during handling operations. And that would be a use of natural or synthetic rope. And you can find that under the OSHA standard 1926.1401. Okay, so some slices of natural and synthetic rope. 1926 and 1910.184 contain abundant and detailed instructions for making specific splices. But a few highlights of additional concern are, as Carl stated before regarding rope, knots cannot be used in lieu of splices. Fiber rope slings shall have a minimum cleared length of rope between I splices equal to 10 times the rope diameter. And also for all I splices, the I shall be of such size to provide an included angle of not greater than 60 degrees at the splice when the I is placed over the load for support. Okay, so when do we want to remove the natural and synthetic rope from service? It has to be immediately removed from service if there's abnormal wear. If you get that powdered fiber between the strands, that is a bad sign of excessive wear or stretch. If you find broken or cut fibers, variations in the size or the roundness of those strands, discoloration or rotting, and distortion of the hardware in the sling. 1926.251 states natural and synthetic fiber rope slings, except for wet frozen slings, may be used in temperature ranges from negative 20 to up to 180 degrees. And if you have to operate outside that temperature range, you need to get a hold of the manufacturer. Only fiber rope slings made of new rope shall be used. The use of repair to recondition fiber rope slings is prohibited. And of course, load rating tags have to be affixed to all that rope. Now we're going to talk about synthetic web slings, and we use these a lot in precast, both out in the field, field applications, and in the plant. They're a nice alternative to those heavy chains, and they work well, but make sure, even though we are talking about practices, pad those corners, protect them from getting cut. So they can be made of nylon, polyester, and polypropylene. In 1926.251E1, synthetic webbing, nylon, polyester, and polypropylene shall be marked or coded with the name of the manufacturer, the rated capacity for that type of hitch, and the type of material. So inspection of web slings. 1910.184 says that synthetic webbing shall be of uniform thickness and width, and salvage edges shall not be split from the webbing's width. Both in general industry and construction OSHA standards state synthetic web sling shall be immediately removed from service if any of the following conditions are present. Acid or caustic burns, melting or charring of any part of that sling, a snag, a puncture, tear, or a cut, broken worn stitches, distorted fittings, and load rating tags have to be permanently affixed. So this is key in our industry, since many pre-casters out there do acid wash and put architectural finishes on architectural panels and elements. Synthetic web slings do not use near acids. So 1910.184 and also 1926.251 says that nylon web slings shall not be used where fumes, vapors, sprays, mists, or liquids of acids are present. Polyester and polypropylene web slings shall not be used where fumes, vapors, sprays, mists, or liquids of caustics are present. So OSHA clearly states that using this in a muriatic acid or sulfuric acid environment, we're playing with a little bit of fire because if you get a burn in that sling, that is at one weak point where it could fail. Web slings with aluminum fittings shall not be used where fumes, vapors, sprays, mists, or liquids or caustics are present. 1910.184, I-7, and 1926 state that synthetic web slings of polyester and nylon shall not be used in temperatures in excess of 180 degrees. And polypropylene slings shall not be used at temperatures in excess of 200 degrees. So last slide here on slings is talking about repairs. And 1910.184, I-8 states that synthetic web slings that are repaired shall not be used unless repaired by a sling manufacturer or equivalent to two times the rated load capacity prior to its return to service. The employer shall retain a certificate of the proof load test and make it available for examination. Slings including webbing and fittings that have been repaired in a temporary manner cannot be used, shall not be used. Okay, so are there any questions on those slings, metal mats, synthetic webbing, all that good stuff? We did have one comment. So for synthetic webbing, is there a shelf life for them such that they need to be taken out of service after a certain amount of time? Even if they are not showing signs of damage, for example, does prolonged UV exposure cause them to deteriorate over time? That is a very good question. I would refer to the manufacturer's recommendations when it comes to UV exposure. But in regards to shelf life, I have seen slings that were stored inside and sometimes used outside for quite a few years. And as long as it met all of the inspection criteria that I have just covered, they were continuing to be used safely. In regards to UV, I would refer to the manufacturer. I don't know. Carl, do you have anything additional to that? Well, I think in some inspections, I've seen inspection reports that look to fading of the color of the sling. So fading of the color of the sling can sometimes denote UV exposure great enough that it's changing color. So manufacturers build in some of that in their sling. So I would take a look at that. Again, refer back to the sling manufacturer. But as long as things are properly cared for, properly stored, and properly inspected, I know of no shelf life. Okay, anything else, Becky? Nope, that was the only one that came in. All right, well, we know that these slings and ropes and stuff don't attach by themselves. So we're gonna talk about the other parts of the rigging, which are known as attachments. I mean, we use hooks, we use non-hook attachments. 1926.251 says that the manufacturer's recommendation shall be followed in determining the safe working loads of various sizes and types and specific and identifiable hooks. The load rating shall be permanently marked on a tag or embossed on a hook. All hooks for which there's no applicable manufacturer's recommendation available shall be tested to twice the intended safe working load before they're initially put to use. An employer shall maintain a record and dates of the results of those tests. Most of the hooks that we currently use in the field will definitely have a marking on the hook that shows that. So we need to make sure that each attachment that we're looking at on the load transfer is significant to make the load. As for non-hook attachments, ASME, the B30 series, talks about voluntary testing. Most of the below the hook lifting or below the hook of the crane lifting devices have been tested to this. We just need to talk about how we look at those attachments because we need to be inspecting not only the slings, but everything that attaches from the crane hook down. So if we start to take a look at those, some of the obvious ones that are there are of course the shackle, right? Because it takes a shackle to hook the choker to the hook. So in looking at the shackle, we would inspect the wear on the bowl of the shackle. That's the part where we're starting to see, and I might even question that sling. You see how that sling is deformed? So when we take the load off of that sling, does that sling go back to its natural shape? But the friction of that sling within the shackle can wear there. So we need to inspect that saddle. We need to also look at the pin, the pin that screws into the shackle that closes off the opening. We need to make sure that that pin is not bent, that it is straight and that there's not wear on the shackle pin itself. And when you take the shackle apart or the pin out, is the open end of the U, we should inspect that for distortion. Has that been stretched because the rigging load may have gone from side to side in the shackle and not from top to bottom? So as we were looking at that, let's go to a figure to kind of look at what that's there. And just like the hook, each shackle should have a marking that identifies its capacity. So those, we need to look and make sure that those shackle marks are there and aren't missing. That we need to look at the pin and body to make sure it's not bent or distorted. If the pin or the body of the shackle is distorted or spread, or if the diameter of the pin or body is reduced by more than 10%. And also we need to remove from service if there are nicks or gouges in the shackle or evidence there. So we need to be watching for that. And then, has the shackle or the pin itself been exposed to heat or chemicals that might have it there? If you're having trouble, you know, some of the obvious things are, are you having trouble feeding the pin in to the threaded portion of the shackle? And as noted in this diagram, we should never replace a shackle pin with a bolt or a piece of rebar or anything that might fit through those holes, but aren't part of the manufacturer's, the way you got it from the manufacturer. That manufacturer's pin is made especially for that. So, as we move on and we take a look, what can we see is wrong with this? Well, a couple of things are wrong with this picture. First of all, as Mike talked about with the hooks, you know, part of the hook is missing. There's no safety latch on that. We can see that the cable clamps are being used as part of rigging. This should never be used as part of rigging or lifting. You might see them in use as a cable, as a safety cable, or as, you know, a guy line or something like that, but it should never be used for lifting or pulling. So, can we count the number of wires that are missing here? This picture shows too many wires. Almost that entire lay is missing the appropriate numbers of wires. This would definitely need to be removed from service. You should not salvage any part of that. We've got to get rid of that. Remember, I said 10 randomly distributed broken wires in any rope lay or five broken wires in any one strand in any rope lay would disqualify or want you to take this rigging out of service. And wire rope shall not be used if any length of any eight diameters or total number of visible broken wires exceeds 10% of the total number of wires. And if the rope shows any signs of excessive wear, corrosion, or defect. So, these are giving you some good examples. And here's a chain. Is this chain in compliance? This chain is not in compliance. Any job or shop hooks or links or makeshift fasteners formed from bolts or rods or any other attachments should not be used. Only fully designed attachments by a professional engineer should be there. No homemade lifting devices. So, are there questions as we wrap up? And we've almost used up our hour and a half, but we've got some time for questions if there are any. Do you have any questions? There is no additional questions that have been answered at this time. Excellent, well, we're doing really well for time then. I would like to thank everyone who has been on this webinar for having the interest in rigging safety. The rigging that we use both in our plants on our job sites are significant. These aren't easy, light lifts. And so, it is imperative that we continue to rig safely and to make sure that the rigging that we are doing is done properly with the right equipment. Every time we rig, we should have a plan for rigging. Each piece is not identical to the last. So, a rigging plan should be established. Our rigging should be inspected before use and after cycles of use. Mike, anything you want to add in regard to last minutes of rigging safety? No, that everything Carl and I covered is preventative. It's best to take the approach to safety from a preventative standpoint instead of reactionary. Let's inspect our rigging before it goes bad, before an incident happens. And that is what the QA supplier committee with PCI put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this presentation. I would like to give that committee all the credit and the active numbers of that committee for their hard work. But to prevent injuries during lifting operations within precast is the purpose of this, before an accident happens to prevent that accident. So, thank you, Carl and PCI. Thank you, Mike. And Becky, thank you very much. If you want to wrap up what you said you were going to remind everybody about their earned education hours. So, thank you very much, Becky, for putting this together. And again, it's an important topic. We can't brush it aside. On behalf of PCI, I'd like to thank Carl and Mike for this great presentation. And as a reminder, certificates of continuing education will appear in your account at rsep.net within 10 days. If you have any further questions about today's webinar, please email marketing at pci.org. And as a reminder, this was also recorded and will be available in the eLearning Center probably later this week or early next week. So, thank you again and everybody have a great day and stay safe. Thanks again, everyone. Thank you.

webinar

Becky Masaggia

PCI

Rigging Equipment Recommended Inspection and Maintenance

Carl Harris

Mike Wolfe

metal mesh slings

natural rope

synthetic rope

synthetic web slings

rigging plan

manufacturer's recommendations