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It is believed that due to poor maintenance of the slewing fracture, the two tower crane booms failed in high winds.

HSE's investigation of the failure of the luffing crane found that the slewing brake was not properly released, which caused the tower crane's boom to lock and the wind vane could not be free in high winds.

The alert was issued after preliminary findings were obtained during an ongoing investigation of the recent luffing crane boom failure.

The latest findings of the detector indicate that lack of maintenance, especially insufficient lubrication of the swing brake release mechanism, seems to be the root cause.

So far, HSE has not disclosed the location and time of the crane failure, but when the storm hit the south coast two years ago, the booms of several luffing cranes failed.

One of the most noticeable failures was that the jib of the Jost luffing crane buckled and fell onto the roof of the cabinet office.

It is now recommended that crane owners and users ensure that the tower crane slewing brake release mechanism remains in effective working condition and well maintained.

HSE warns that failure to maintain the release mechanism may result in the operator not being able to fully release the slewing brake when the crane is placed in a deactivated state, or the operator may have fully released the slewing brake when the operator believes that the slewing brake is still partially engaged.

The alert stated that operators and maintenance personnel should be specifically instructed on how to inspect, inspect and maintain the swing brake release mechanism.

When necessary, this should include information about the type of lubrication and the frequency and method of applying lubrication to the release mechanism.

Earlier this year, HSE discovered that some tower crane users did not release the slewing brake and/or place the boom in the correct out-of-service range when the crane was taken out of service and left unattended.

The latest alert was issued after investigations into three specific tower crane failures, which strongly hinted at operator error.

Written by Aaron Morby 7 years ago Share a story email aaron.morby@constructionenquirer.com is always private

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