6.
Selected Lifting and Loading Equipment
The following recommendations are based on
knowledge and experience of the insurer gained
from numerous cases of damage. The guidelines
given are primarily aimed at avoiding or removing
those faults and deficiencies which are frequently
repeated and lead to damage and interrupted
operations.
Practice shows that a very high percentage of
all damage can be traced to factors which can
certainly be influenced. In this regard, technical
shortcomings in design, faulty manufacture and
assembly, unsuitable materials, faulty handling,
inadequate maintenance and (of even more signi-
ficance) ignorance, thoughtlessness and negli-
gence, as well as insufficient co-operation, are
the reasons for extensive and costly damage.
Regulations Serving Operational Safety
Existing building codes, operational instructions
and supervision directives have, after all, been
drafted with a view to loss prevention and hence
to the protection of human beings and property.
Allianz Versicherungs-AG, Handbook of Loss Prevention
© Allianz Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin/München 1978
Sources of information on the most important
relevant technical regulations and directives are:
DIN leaflets, VDI guidelines and AWF leaflets:
Beuth-Vertrieb GmbH
Burggrafenstr. 4--7, 1000 Berlin 30,
or
Beuth-Vertrieb GmbH
Friesenplatz 16, 5000 Cologne,
or
Beuth-Vertrieb GmbH
Gutleutstr. 163, 6000 Frankfurt/Main.
VDE regulations:
VDE-Verlag GmbH
Bismarckstr. 33, 1000 Berlin 12 (Charlottenburg).
Regulations of the employers' liability insurance
companies for the prevention of accidents:
Carl Heymanns-Verlag KG
Gereonstr. 18-33, 5000 Cologne.
6.1. Slewing Cranes and Loading Bridges
Representative of the large number of damage
cases to slewing cranes and loading bridges
reported to the insurer during recent years is the
survey given in Table 1, in which 476 cases of
damage to slewing cranes in shipyards and cargo-
handling facilities are divided in accordance with
the causes and primary locations of damage.
Product Faults
Apart from design faults, product faults include
manufacturing and materials faults and the so-
called late assembly faults (e.g., as a result of
faulty alignment of machine components), as well
as planning faults, the responsibility for which
lies not only with the manufacturer but also with
the user. In addition, product faults include all
repair faults which later give rise to further dam-
age.
Assembly Accidents
This group comprises all damage which has
occurred during assembly (e.g., by crashing down
as a result of rope breakage).
Operational Faults
Operational faults include all damage caused by
mishandling and faulty maintenance. Also, dam-
age arising from collisions, storms and broken
Table I. Distribution of the causes and primary locations of 476 cases of damage to slewing cranes.
Cause of damage Distribution of
the number of
damage cases [%J
Product faults 42
Assembly accidents 2 (including booms)
Operational faults 56
ropes must be allocated to this group, since it
can be traced almost exclusively to mishandling
and inadequate maintenance.
Discussion of Damage Causes and Locations
First of all, the high proportion (42%) of all
damage arising from product faults stands out
in Table 1. This high proportion can be ex-
plained, on the one hand, by the fact that the
cranes concerned are long-lived products which
have partly been built in the post-war years, at
the time when circumstances made it necessary
to improvise and also on occasion to make use
of less suitable materials. On the other hand (and
this primarily concerns the high proportion of
damage arising from design faults), the changes
to which crane construction was subjected in the
1950's have contributed to the increase in the
damage quota ascribed to product faults. The
demands for maximum economy, new technical
assumptions and changed conditions in impor-
tant fields of application have resulted in convert-
ing the old design of slewing crane into a cargo-
handling machine of high efficiency, but in the
course of this conversion numerous problems of
many different kinds had to be solved.
With respect to the primary damage locations,
i.e., those from which damage (e.g., rupture, dis-
tortion and short-circuits) originates as a result
of manufacturing faults, inadequate maintenance,
Location of damage Distribution of
the number of
damage cases [%J
Structural steelwork 26
Mechanical equipment 51
(travelling, slewing,
lifting, luffing gear, etc.)
Electrical equipment 7
Wire ropes 3
Various 13
(through collision, storms
and other causes)