Safety Factor: The Dangers of Homemade Lifting Devices

Intro

(upbeat music)

– [Announcer] For your own safety, you are reminded to stand behind the yellow line.

– [Ben Hengst] Welcome to Safety Factor, my name is Ben Hengst, and today we’re talking about the dangers of using homemade lifting devices. I’m joined by a few below-the-hook experts. We’re talking with Dale Kelly, engineering manager at Caldwell Lifting Solutions.

– [Dale Kelly] Nice to be here.

– [Ben Hengst] Talking with Dan Mongan, senior sales engineer from Caldwell as well.

– [Dan Mongan] Hi there.

– [Ben Hengst] And Jay Schroeder, regional sales manager from Caldwell as well.

– [Jay Schroeder] Hello there.

– [Ben Hengst] And I’m also joined by Kevin Brewer, Below-the-Hook sales specialist from Mazzella. Gentlemen, thank you for having us down to Caldwell headquarters.

– You’re welcome.

– Thank you.

What is considered a homemade lifting device?

– [Ben Hengst] So, what is a homemade lifting device?

– [Dale Kelly] Well, a homemade lifting device is considered product that’s not designed per the proper standards, such as ASME or the BTH. Many times I’ve seen customers ask us to certify their product. And it can be a standard C-Clamp where they’ve modified it or put a different shackle or attachment on it. And of course, they’re assuming the liability for that, and they ask us to prove it out. Those are the type of devices we try to not certify, obviously, because they’re unsafe and unreliable.

Can in-house engineers design lifting devices for your needs?

– [Ben Hengst] What if a company has their own in-house engineers and they engineer below-the-hook device but it’s not made by a certified manufacturer? Is that considered a homemade device as well?

– [Dale Kelly] It could be, yes. Because of the traceability aspects of it. The material that they’re using is unsubstantiated, it’s not been certified, the traceability is a problem. Jay, you’ve probably seen this as well, I think.

– [Jay Schroeder] Absolutely, many times we get called in to look at more of a solution. They’ve been using something homemade for years, whether it’s lifting a motor or something that’s worked for them but it’s not to the safety standards that the ASME B30.26 or BTH is called out to be.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, one of the things that we see in the field a lot of times with homemade devices or devices that they’ve made in the plant is they may have an engineering staff that designed it and put it together, but the questions we try to ask is do they understand what the safety factors are? Do they understand what goes into making an approved BTH device per ASME? And then also not only the engineering aspect but the traceability of all those parts. Like Dale was saying, you’ve got to have traceability of all the steel that goes into it. So every piece, you’ve got to know it’s origination points, the welder certifications, every weld that was put on that piece of equipment, you’ve got to be able to trace it back to the welder that did it and his proof of passing a welding test. And then basically it boils down to risk mitigation for us. We try to look at it in terms, if there’s an accident or something happens and you’re sitting in a courtroom, who’s going to be responsible and who’s going to answer those hard questions?

– [Dale Kelly] The liability is a big question in those type of situations.

– [Jay Schroeder] At the end of the day we want everybody to go home that was using those equipment.

What are the consequences of using a homemade lifting device?

– [Ben Hengst] So what are some of the consequences of using a homemade lifting device and having an accident?

– [Jay Schroeder] Death of an employee would be the worst, would absolutely.

– [Dale Kelly] OSHA fines might come into play.

– [Ben Hengst] So let’s look at the worst case scenario. You’re using a homemade lifting device, there’s a death of an employee, what are some of the repercussions that you might be subjected to?

– [Jay Schroeder] Definitely an OSHA investigation. They’re going to look into the accident, what you were using, how are you using it, what kind of training you’ve probably given your employees on how to use the equipment. Yeah, there’s going to be several different factors there involved.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, you could also, you know, personal lawsuits and liabilities.

– [Dale Kelly] Absolutely.

– [Kevin Brewer] They pile up so fast – [Dale Kelly] Most definitely.

– [Kevin Brewer] and so to save a few hundred or a few thousand dollars making your own device versus buying one from a true below-the-hook manufacturer, it really just doesn’t make sense in most applications.

What are the ASME requirements for lifting devices?

– [Ben Hengst] So, what are the ASME requirements for below-the-hook lifting devices?

– [Dale Kelly] Depends. There’s different standards for different types of lifting devices, so each one of us has our own unique experience. The beams have one standard, my clamps have a different standard than Jay’s lifting points are all different standards. Usually it ranges in the safety factors like 4:1 for Jay’s, 5:1 for my clamps. I apologize, it’s actually 3:1 for clamps, but we designed to 5:1. And then there’s specific user instructions that apply where the operator has to, if he is following those guidelines, he has to follow the certain inspection levels. So, there’s a host of many different requirements that are required when you state you’re meeting the ASME guidelines in addition to the actual design guidelines themselves.

– [Dan Mongan] Yeah, even appropriate labeling on the lifter.

– [Dale Kelly] Very important.

– [Dan Mongan] You know, that’s real important. Technically, you’re not even supposed to use a lifting device unless it has all appropriate labeling on it. So rarely will you find a homemade device that’s even identified properly.

– [Dale Kelly] Yeah, it must have the working load. In my case, the clamp must have the jaw opening. It must tell you the service class, the design category, and all that takes engineering and possibly design proof testing to determine those ratings that apply to that particular lifting device.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, with that you’ve also got to have manufacturer’s information so you got to have some, again, that traceability. And I think the BTH-1 current designs require manufacturing date on them as well.

– [Dale Kelly] It does, as well as the ASME as well. Yeah, date of manufacturer must be on it.

– [Dan Mongan] And kind of back to what we were saying earlier with an engineer, at a company that would design something, even if they knew the appropriate design standard, there’s specific calculations that are required, so we look at lateral buckling and things of that nature that maybe that engineer isn’t aware that he’s got to consider in the design. So, the people in this industry have expertise really in designing and building everything. So, I mean, just simply, why would somebody else want to build their own?

Why would someone want to build their own lifting device?

– [Ben Hengst] So, I guess that’s a good question. Why would somebody else want to build their own? What are the reasons? – [Jay Schroeder] To save money. A lot of time it’s just saving money or time. And I’ve walked into a facility where they really needed an eye bolt, so they took an actual socket head cap screw and they welded on a washer on there, and they used that as their lifting device. Nowhere in the world should you be using something like that but that was what they used at the time. And I don’t know if it was to save money or to save time, but it was their easy, cheap way to get out of it.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, a lot of times it boils down to one of the two. It’s either we don’t have a budget for doing it right and so we deal with what we can because production is tasked with getting a job done and they’re not giving the funds to get the equipment they need to do that job and so maintenance comes up with something. Or it’s time. Getting the right part might take 6, 10, 12 weeks versus “My maintenance shop can build it this weekend. “I can have it Monday.”

The importance of properly planning a lift

– [Dale Kelly] It’s a lack of planning and consideration for the importance of lifting as well. A lot of times a customer will come out there and say, “I just need to move this from here to here,” and they don’t plan their lifts, which is one of the requirements you should be doing and that we teach in our training class, is you need to plan your lift as though it’s part of an integral structure. Just like if you go out buy a car and you need to buy a set of tires for it, you need to know what tire you buy. When you orchestrate a lift, you need to do a lift plan, and you need to follow that lift plan. And by doing that, you’ll have the proper equipment ahead of time, including your PPE equipment so that you make a proper and safe lift. Very important to consider it as part of your manufacturing process.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, that’s a great point. That was what I started to say, another factor in why they use homemade or not use the right thing is training and awareness. You have people on the manufacturing floor, they come in, that’s all they’ve ever seen, they’ve not been trained properly, that’s all they know. They don’t know that there’s a better option or a better way. And then those situations, it really falls on the company’s responsibility to have that training and make them aware of it.

– [Jay Schroeder] Absolutely. – [Dan Mongan] Yep.

– [Kevin Brewer] The dangers of what they’re doing.

– [Jay Schroeder] Many times we’ll get a phone call and said, “Hey, I forgot I was going to have to lift this.”

– [Dale Kelly] Or move it.

– [Jay Schroeder] I’ve manufactured it, it’s built, it sitting on the machine, and now I got to get it off the machine and do it to a secondary operation or load it on a truck, and what do you guys have real quick? Well, that’s not really a safe idea. I mean, we should be thinking about this and how can we make that lift? What equipment will we need?

– [Dale Kelly] Exactly.

– [Jay Schroeder] What does your facility have? We have to worry if we’re using an overhead crane or if we’re using some sort of a boom on a fork truck. I mean, what are we using to make that lift?

Can a lifting device engineered in-house become certified?

– [Ben Hengst] So, can a homemade below-the-hook lifting device, can it becomes certified at any point?

– [Dale Kelly] It’s possible if the person could or the manufacturer could prove out all the requirements, but it’s unlikely, because your welder has to be trained, he needs to know the AWS standards so he knows to weld properly. Then your engineer has to know the codes as well as somebody in the industry. So, is it doable? Yes. But is it probable? No, it’s not likely. We do this for a living. That’s all we do, is we eat, breathe, we know the standards. All of our welders are certified, they go through a trained certification process so we don’t take chances, and we do proof testing on all our products. And that takes a lot of money ahead of time. To build one piece, by the time you build it and test it, you can buy that product from a company that’s done all that and has put the time and effort in to ensure it’s safe.

What is the process of creating a certified lifting device?

– [Ben Hengst] So walk me through the process of developing a below-the-hook lifting device. Like, what does Caldwell do? What does Mazzella do? Really spell out why it’s a good idea to go to a professional. Explain the process.

– [Dan Mongan] Well, I guess the first thing we got to do is decide if, as your example, is this an off-the-shelf, fairly straightforward lifting beam or spreader bar is it a fully custom engineer lifting solution?

– [Kevin Brewer] I think a lot of that really starts with our end of things, with the Mazzella and the sales team that’s out in the field. Meeting with that customer or end user and really determining what their process is, and what they need. And then once we establish what their process and need is, then we can sit down with the manufacturing and with Caldwell’s experts, and put together the right solution. Whether it’s a simple lifting beam, or a rigging solution, or in a lot of cases, it’s a combination of a beam and some rigging or a beam and some clamps, or there could be several combinations of doing things different ways and determining which way is the most economical and safest.

– [Dan Mongan] We more and more want to collaborate, of course, with Mazzella on the sales side, and really get involved with the end user as well. Because COVID hit, everybody is doing business differently, right, so we’re doing all kinds of Teams meetings now in which we involve everybody related to the project and really talk about the entire application from start to finish. So it’s not just, “I need to lift this,” it’s, “What is each step in the process? “What is the environment?” All those kinds of questions. And then we put our expertise to that to help him come up with the best solution.

– [Jay Schroeder] And I’ve worked for Dan long enough to know that he’s a picture guy, so he wants to see pictures of the lift, pictures of the equipment that we’re lifting, what kind of crane do you have, what’s the crane hook. The pictures tell the story. And that really helps us get the best solution for the end user.

– [Dan Mongan] Yeah, it’s a great point.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, an overlooked piece of that process a lot of times is the speed of repetition, how quickly does the production process take, have we got plenty of time to rig before we go or do we need to go really fast? And that impacts a lot of what the solution will be.

How does insurance play a role in the creation of a lifting device?

– [Ben Hengst] What about insurance? I assume that if Mazzella and Caldwell have the insurance to back up their devices, whereas a homemade lifting device may not. That’s something that they may not even consider.

– [Dale Kelly] True. When a manufacturer designs its own product, he’s assuming a hundred percent liability for that product. So if it fails, it’s on his back. When we sell him a product, the liability will lie with us. And of course, if there’s something goes wrong, then we’re held accountable.

– [Kevin Brewer] It also comes down to proper use. If they buy this product but use it improperly.

– [Dale Kelly] Good point.

– [Dan Mongan] Yeah. – [Jay Schroeder] Yeah, absolutely.

– [Jay Schroeder] It’s not our fault.

– [Kevin Brewer] But we still get called in, we’re still a part of that lawsuit and that mitigation process, and that’s where the training becomes so important because it’s dangerous.

How does lifting training impact liability with an accident?

I mean, even if you’re only lifting 500 pounds, 500 pounds will do a lot of damage if it falls on somebody. And so you have to have proper training to use these and that’s a part of the insurance and the risk mitigation that I mentioned earlier, is not only designing, and developing, and manufacturing the products the right way, but then training the end users to use them the right way, and a lot of times that falls on the buyer or the end user. That company’s responsible for making sure that those people are trained properly. We provide them the opportunities for those trainings. Caldwell has training programs, Mazzella has training programs that we offer and can help with those but it still falls on the responsibility of that customer to arrange that training.

– [Jay Schroeder] Absolutely.

– [Dale Kelly] Unfortunately, they don’t realize how important it is until after an incident. That’s the sad part. And we’d like to see that change, of course.

What are the worst lifting devices you’ve seen in the field?

– [Ben Hengst] So, what are some of the worst devices that you’ve seen out in the field being used?

– [Kevin Brewer] Jay’s example was a pretty good one.

– [Dan Mongan] Yeah. Yeah, I got a good one the other day. Another sales engineer showed me some pictures and a customer was literally lifting something that was resting on forklift forks by placing a sling through it, and then using a 2×4 in that sling. So literally lifting a load with a 2×4 and then they were flipping it, turning it 90 degrees to access it in a different way. So we immediately raised the alarm and sent very important information saying, “You need to cease doing that,” for sure. Again, you can’t control what’s happening out there, that’s for sure.

– [Jay Schroeder] I’ve seen somebody take a piece of conduit and bend it at the top and make kind of a master ring, and then they bent it at the bottom and they were using it to grab items out of a bath of like a salt bath.

– [Dan Mongan] Oh wow.

– [Jay Schroeder] So I mean, just whatever. – [Kevin Brewer] Seen some similar devices like that, made it from All Thread where they just take a piece of threaded rod and bend it around at the top.

– [Dale Kelly] I’ve seen that.

– [Jay Schroeder] And they don’t even weld it at the top, you know.

– [Kevin Brewer] Just bend it around. – [Dale Kelly] A load carried by the hook. I’ve seen clamps modified where they’ll take the ring off and put a T-bar on it, and then the T-bar ended up getting stuck down inside it and broke the guy’s leg, and saw pictures of that. So even modifying another existing clamp is not a good idea. Even though it was certified. Of course I would say that voided the warranty but…

– [Jay Schroeder] And it’s crazy to think that it’s not just a one time thing, you see it once. It happens, I mean, probably once a month I see you some sort of a unique homemade lifting device and you just kind of give it to them because they were at least thinking about it, but they weren’t thinking about it the right way.

Have your design built by a certified professional

– [Dan Mongan] Well, I’ve seen some pretty innovative homemade lifting devices. You can’t get around that. There’s some talented people. If they’re around this process all day, every day, so a talented maintenance guy or an engineer at that facility, they could really come up with something. But I would say, “Hey, if you have these great ideas, “present them to us. “Let’s, let’s collaborate “and let’s build a BTH certified piece of equipment “that follows your thought process.”

– [Jay Schroeder] Absolutely.

– [Ben Hengst] So what do you say to someone who says, “I know this better than you. “I’m doing this every single day. “I know the lifts that I need to make. “I think that I can design something “better than you can design.”

– [Jay Schroeder] You do tell them like, “Hey, I understand that you know the process better, “but I come from a lifting background.” Like Dan said, let’s collaborate to use it. I mean, I’m not going to discredit that he knows the process. Absolutely. – [Dale Kelly] There’s nothing that says you can’t design his product into an ASME approved product. But it’s just more than about the design process, it’s about the traceability. It’s about proving it works versus thinking it works. It’s about using proper certified welders. So, it’s a bigger picture. Yes, you can take that concept and work it into a very usable design and it still can meet the ASME requirements. And we do that. I have done that on some of our clamps. Dan’s worked with me on projects, I work with Dan on projects in conjunction. We’ll come up with a system approach. We’re doing one for a company right now where I designed the clamp and he designed the lifting rig system for the whole thing, so it’s pretty innovative. So we work together as a team.

– [Dan Mongan] I mean, we just had a real simple one in which a customer comes to us and they said, “Hey, we’ve been lifting bundles of lumber “in this manner for years with this device, “can you build something very similar?” And we certainly did. We quoted it and we built it but again, the structure was BTH rated. But in addition, we required a latching mechanism to make sure it couldn’t inadvertently open. And that’s just something that if you’re not in the lifting industry, you don’t think about, “Hey, that really should be positively locked closed.” But fortunately they bought it from us, they’ve put that in place, they’ve thrown away their own homemade device, and now they’ve got safe equipment for their employees.

What if you don’t have the budget to replace all your homemade devices?

– [Ben Hengst] So maybe there’s some people listening to this, and they’ve been using the same homemade lifting devices for forever and a light bulb just went off and they went, “Uh-oh, I guess I’m in trouble.”

– [Dale Kelly] I hope so.

– [Ben Hengst] So, what can they do to become compliant, especially if they’ve got a lot of lifting devices and maybe they don’t have the budget right now to just go out and replace all of them. What advice do you have for them?

– [Kevin Brewer] Start.

– [Jay Schroeder] Yeah, absolutely.

– [Dale Kelly] Contact Caldwell.

– [Jay Schroeder] Mazzella, Caldwell, get one of us involved, let us take a look at your application and rank them in order a little. Maybe this one here’s the most dangerous, so let’s look at that one first and we’ll kind of work down from there, but we’d like to see all the homemade devices taken care of.

– [Dale Kelly] And sometimes we might offer a standard product right out of the catalog that’ll do exactly what they need, and sometimes we’ll have to design something. But get us involved, talk to us. We encourage that.

– [Dan Mongan] Yeah, I mean, an example a few years ago, a locomotive manufacturing facility, it was components, they had 35 different homemade devices in there. So, flew out to their facility, gathered information on each one, and, of course, it was a budget issue. So what we did was design and build three or four at a time. So, we replaced four, they’d come back to us, we’d do another four and just kept working through that.

– [Kevin Brewer] Yeah, and like I said, the biggest thing there is just start. Get started, do something. And working with us and and we can help prioritize which ones to start with. Like you said, maybe it’s the most dangerous application, maybe it’s the one that’s the heaviest, highest duty cycle usage. And so we can take a lot of those things into consideration. And that just kind of triggered something, a thought processes with designing their own.

How does duty cycle affect a lifting device?

Another piece that’s overlooked a lot of times is duty cycles. How many times that device is going to be used over the course of its expected life is a major factor in the design, and a lot of times those homemade engineers don’t understand to take that into consideration. Metal fatigue will come into play with a device that it’s life expectancy is 20,000 picks versus 200,000 picks. And there’s a different design process that goes into that.

– [Jay Schroeder] Absolutely. I think many times when someone calls us and we ask, and we actually have an internal application data sheet that we ask them to fill out. And a lot of times, I think they they kind of think, “I wonder why they need all this information.” But it’s for us to give you the exact thing that you need, the proper item. It really helps on our end to understand your needs for your lifting solution.

How to contact Caldwell Lifting Solutions

– [Ben Hengst] All right. Well, gentlemen, thank you for having us to your headquarters here, hosting us for the podcast. How can they get ahold of you guys? Where can they find you?

– [Jay Schroeder] www.caldwellinc.com.

– [Dale Kelly] You could also see the JC Renfroe website, www.jcrenfroe.com. Our phone number is 1-800-628-4263. Ask for one of our sales reps and we’ll have Dan or one of the other customer service reps help you out.

Learn more about below-the-hook lifting devices

– [Ben Hengst] Be sure to visit caldwellinc.com. And as always, you can get ahold of myself, or Kevin, or any of our other experts at mazzellacompanies.com. Don’t forget to pop into our learning center, we have a ton of information there. We also have a ton of information on below-the-hook lifting devices. Subscribe to Safety Factor wherever you listen to your podcast. Or you can watch it on The Lifting & Rigging Channel on YouTube. Thanks for listening and stay safe out there.