Inspecting lifting equipment: intervals, scope, documentation

Two sets of rules interlock. German industrial safety regulations oblige the employer to have work equipment inspected and to derive type, scope and intervals from the risk assessment. DGUV Regulation 54 – winches, lifting and pulling devices – makes that concrete for lifting equipment and names annual inspection by a competent person as the normal case. For cranes, DGUV Regulation 52 applies accordingly. The annual interval is an upper limit, not a target: where three-shift work takes place under scale, it is too long.

The German technical rule TRBS 1203 describes the “person competent to inspect”: they need suitable vocational training, sufficient professional experience and recent relevant activity in the field. A maintenance supervisor can be one, as can a trained service technician. What is not enough: a course taken ten years ago with no practice since. And whoever inspects must be free to decide – someone responsible for plant availability should not rule on taking it out of service.

The scope follows the manufacturer’s operating instructions and the risk assessment. In practice it covers visual and functional inspection of load-bearing parts, suspension and lifting devices, checking emergency stop and limit switches, brake function, completeness of marking and operating instructions, plus a load test where the instructions call for one. For chains and ropes, discard criteria are added – elongation, wire breaks, deformation, corrosion.

When the accident insurance institution comes after an incident, the first thing it looks at is the inspection log. It has to evidence inspection date, scope, defects found, their rectification and the person who inspected. A sticker on the unit is a hint, not a record. That is the most common ground for objection – not because no inspection took place, but because nobody can prove it did.

If a unit is substantially modified – a different gripper, a changed reach, an additional drive – an inspection is due before it is put back into service. Depending on the extent, the modification can even create a new machine under the Machinery Directive, with its own risk assessment and declaration of conformity. That threshold is often overlooked in practice; we therefore document modifications to our units in the modification service.