4.4 Periodic inspection, records and keeping bad gear out

1 The periodic inspection: which slings, how often

Beyond the inspection before each use, chain slings get a second, formal regime. 1910.184(e)(3)(i) and 1926.251(b)(6)(i): a thorough periodic inspection of alloy steel chain slings in use, on a regular basis determined by

• frequency of sling use;
• severity of service conditions;
• nature of the lifts being made; and
• experience gained on the service life of slings used in similar circumstances

— and then the cap: "Such inspections shall in no event be at intervals greater than once every 12 months."

Read the four factors rather than skipping to the twelve months. They mean the interval is a decision your organisation makes and can defend, and that hard daily service in a foundry does not get the same interval as a sling used twice a year in a clean shop. Twelve months is the ceiling, not the answer.

OSHA's sling guidance offers the same shape for the other materials, as guidance rather than as a rule: periodic inspections at intervals no greater than 12 months, with yearly for normal service, monthly to quarterly for severe service, and as recommended by a qualified person for special or infrequent service.

2 Who does it and what they look for

1910.184(e)(3)(iii): the thorough inspection of alloy steel chain slings is performed by a competent person designated by the employer, and "shall include a thorough inspection for wear, defective welds, deformation and increase in length. Where such defects or deterioration are present, the sling shall be immediately removed from service."

Four named things. Three of them are visible; the fourth, increase in length, is only visible if you measure — which is the practical argument for recording a chain sling's reach when it is new. A chain that has stretched has been overloaded, and a sling that has been overloaded once has probably been overloaded in a way nobody reported.

3 The record: less than you think, and mandatory

1910.184(e)(3)(ii) and 1926.251(b)(6)(ii): "The employer shall make and maintain a record of the most recent month in which each alloy steel chain sling was thoroughly inspected, and shall make such record available for examination."

That is the entire recordkeeping requirement for chain sling inspections, and it is smaller than most people assume. Not a report. Not findings. Not the inspector's name. The most recent month, per sling — which is why colour-coded tags or paint bands by quarter are so common: they satisfy the rule at a glance and they are hard to forget.

Because the record is per sling, each chain sling has to be individually identifiable. 1910.184(e)(1) already requires size, grade, rated capacity and reach on the tag; adding a serial number or an asset number is what makes the inspection record attach to a specific sling rather than to a category of sling.

Other records the standards do require, elsewhere in the same subject:

• Proof test records for welded end attachments on wire rope slings — 1926.251(c)(15)(ii), retained and available.
• Test records for hooks with no manufacturer's recommendation — 1926.251(f)(2), dates and results.
• Proof test records for repaired web slings — 1910.184(i)(8)(ii).
• Repair records for metal mesh slings — 1910.184(g)(8)(ii), date, nature of the repair, and who did it.

OSHA's own guidance notes that its sling standard does not require records of the routine inspections, while the ASME standard contains provisions on inspection records — and adds that employers are not required to follow the ASME recordkeeping requirements. Many organisations choose to anyway, which is a policy decision rather than a regulatory one.

4 Getting bad gear out of circulation

"Removed from service" is a physical act, not an opinion. Three steps make it stick.

1. 1
   Take it out of the work area. A rejected sling that stays with the good slings will be used. 1926.251(a)(3) already requires rigging not in use to be removed from the immediate work area so it does not present a hazard.
2. 2
   Make it obviously unusable, or lock it away. A red bin under someone's control is the minimum. For anything that cannot be repaired — a fiber rope sling, a web sling with a cut, a stretched chain — cutting it up is the only method that cannot be undone by the next shift's optimism.
3. 3
   Write down why. One line: what the condition was, and the paragraph it comes from. It defends the decision, and a pattern in those lines is the most useful safety data a rigging program produces.

5 What a small rigging program looks like

Nothing in 1926.251 or 1910.184 requires a written rigging program, and most sites benefit from a short one anyway. Seven items cover it:

• Who is the competent person for the daily inspection, by name, with the authority to remove gear.
• The periodic inspection interval for chain, with the four factors that justified it.
• Where the record lives — the tag colour scheme or the sheet, per sling.
• The removal lists for the materials actually owned, posted at the rack.
• The out-of-service process: which bin, who empties it, who authorises a repair, and who is allowed to do one.
• Storage: racked, dry, out of sunlight, away from chemicals and heat.
• A standard load list for repetitive lifts, from Chapter 1.1.

Seven headings, a page and a half. The value is not the document; it is that each of those questions has a single answer that everyone gives the same way.

6 The pattern worth watching

Rejection reasons are diagnostic. A rack that produces web slings with cuts is a site with an edge-protection problem, not a site with bad slings. Chain that stretches is a site with a weight problem or a shock-loading problem. Wire rope with bird caging is a site where loads are being landed on their slings.

That connection is the reason to write the one line in step three above. Replacing damaged gear is a cost; understanding why it was damaged is the only way that cost goes down — and, more to the point, the same causes that destroy slings quietly are the ones that eventually destroy one loudly, with a load in the air.