Non-Critical Lift

Introduction

Much as be published on the subject of critical lifts. In fact, in a previous article in this space, the topic was tackled by giving commonly occurring industry reasons for lifts to be classified as 'critical'. Upon studying such a list of reasons, one quickly develops the nagging question...

What Is Not A Critical Lift? 

As it turns out, it should be obvious that every lift should be taken seriously, and be given ample planning and safety consideration. Nevertheless, the emphasis on critical lifts immediately begs the questions: 1) Is there a lift that should not be considered critical?, 2) What would a non-critical lift checklist look like? To get the answers to these two questions, let's create negating statements for commonly occurring reasons that constitute critical lifts. By so doing we come up with:

A Checklist for Non-critical Lifts

At the very least, every item below must receive a check before a lift can be considered non-critical. A non-critical lift is one that:

• In noway will have the potential for personal injury or loss of life
• Will not involve the lifting of personnel
• Will not require rigging personnel to work directly under a suspended load
• Is limited to a single crane
• Involves a load that is less than 75% of the crane's rated capacity
• Involves a load that is not environmentally hazardous or radioactive
• Will be totally performed away from live electrical conductors
• Will be totally conducted away from unprotected equipment and utilities
• Does not involve potentially unstable loads
• Will be performed where the crane's founding soil conditions are fully understood
• Allows direct view of the load by the operator during lifting, swinging, and placing
• Will not require the manipulation, such as turning or drifting, of the load during flight
• Will not involve shock loadings or lateral forces

Caution: The checklist above is not all-inclusive. Each job must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

So What's Left? 

Actually not much. Given safety implications and the risk involved in even simple, non-complicated lifts, some people would argue that every lift should be considered critical.