CATME conference: tower crane safety

Training tower crane operators and signal people together would improve site safety, said Thorsten Hesselbein, sales director, Liebherr Tower Cranes. He will make his case for a new approach to training at the Cranes and Transport Middle East (CATME) conference in Dubai on 10 October.

Hesselbein told International Cranes and Specialized Transport (ICST) that, although operators and signal people are trained, it is rare for them to be trained as a team. “At the last CATME [in 2016] there was a presentation about lift plans being required for every mobile crane lift. You cannot do that for tower cranes – if you did there would be no work done and a mountain of paperwork.

“The solution for tower cranes is training: you have to look into procedures to train signal persons and crane operators together. The industry does training, but not with signalmen and operators together.“

The CATME conference is organised by KHL Group and ICST and will be held at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, UAE.

Hesselbein’s presentation - What really matters in tower crane safety - will consider other safety issues. For example, he said that a high proportion of tower crane failures are related to the design of crane foundations or tie-in anchors.

Contractors and rental companies, when using non-standard crane setups, should obtain crane loadings from OEMs, Hesselbein said. Standard crane loadings are available from manuals, but in non-standard situations the loads should be calculated by the crane manufacturer, he said.

The need for proper crane inspections is another topic he will address; “I have encountered people doing an inspection without climbing the crane.“

For more information on the CATME conference see: www.khl-catme.com