Visual Inspections – How Often?
I was recently talking with a customer about a visual inspection program for Lifting Equipment at their business location in Adelaide. A common question came up, how often does my lifting gear need to be inspected/tested to comply? There are a lot of standards that apply to various pieces of lifting equipment, which makes it a complicated process. First of all, manufacturers recommendations should be consulted first, in the absence of these, my initial advice generally goes along the lines of:
Synthetic Slings – 3 monthly
Height Safety Equipment – 6 monthly
Lifting Chain Slings – Dependent on usage, as per table below
| Number of Lift Cycles Per Week | Inspection Monthly | Inspection 3 Monthly | Inspection 6 Monthly | Inspection 12 monthly |
| 1 to 5 | Yes | |||
| 6 to 25 | Yes | |||
| 26 to 200 | Yes | |||
| 201 plus | Yes |
Other standards that cover lifting equipment are not as forthcoming with specific recommendations, so it is viewed as best practice to use the above as a guide to determine the frequency for all equipment. In saying this, it is important that you take into account the environment that the equipment will be working in, which may have a detrimental effect on products and require more frequent inspections.
Certain Tier 1 builders or mining companies may operate to procedures that exceed the Australian Standards, which will require more frequent inspections or a proof load testing regime for your equipment. These requirements will be passed on to anyone who performs work for them or on their site.
As always, if you have any queries with the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at LiftQuip Australia.
