How to Operate a Tower Crane: Hoist Rope Inspection Tips 

Right on. Good to hear. There is so much to learn and know. I've been at this for 16 years in various roles and I'm just now learning the tech side of the job. It never ends.

Depends on the crane design. Liebherr with the 2 part systems they have, 5 years is common. If you have a 2/4 part system with any strong zig zags in the sheave design, It likely will need to happen in about three years. The more sheaves at play, the less life you'll have with a rope. It's all bending fatigue if there is no external damage. You can extend the rope life if you swap ends halfway in the life. There is often rope at the bottom of the drum that is nearly unused that could go out on the jibs in the working end after say two jobs. This might get you a 3rd and 4th job out of the rope.

You are right. You need two people. Depending on where you are, in the US under ASME B30.3 you really need to be inspecting the full crane including the jib once a month at least. To walk out there you would want a second person on the crane paying attention in case something goes wrong and you need help. At that same time, you could get the full inspection of the rope done. Your local codes might be different but they will be close to the same.

I'm from Israel The tests that we are required to do the same. The condition of the cranes in israel is bad. I'm working on a crane from 2001 it's good But I have friends who work on cranes from the 80s Two weeks ago, Fell 3 Crane in israel, Because the wind, Because there is a shortage of crane operators people without a license working on the cranes. I got my license 2 months ago so everything is new to me.

A solid top ten thing I have seen on a tower crane was an operator tied off in a harness while sitting in the tower crane seat. I left when we were done erecting the crane laughing knowing that his time in a tower crane seat would not last. I never saw him again. It takes time to get used to the heights. One should not take the controls of a tower crane until they can focus on the task at hand. To be frank, most of us in the industry seem to take notice if we are on cranes taller than 500'. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be a number where even in my industry, we start to perceive that we are up there.

The crane manufacturers do a good job of using handrail to eliminate fall hazards on the counter jibs and towers. Wearing a harness during a rope inspection actually becomes a hazard. You have mechanical equipment that turns without guards. A loose lanyard could draw you into the drum and quickly end your life. If one is working in an electrical panel back there, you have the same hazards. A technician for another company a few years back dropped a wrench in a panel and found himself crawling down tower sections with molten metal in his face and hands. Heights are often a secondary concern for us. Harnesses in a few situations only add to the danger.

That sounds ugly. What a lot of modern cranes do is put a camera facing the drum with a screen in the cab. If you used heat, you'd want to be really gentle with it so you don't induce heat on the wires beyond enough to melt the ice. You could cover it, but use something that won't be drug into the drum if the operator for gets it. Plywood?

Hoist up first. Keep the block 3 feet below your up limit. Hoist up into the limit first thing in the morning. Then Hoist down a couple feet and make sure everything is moving through the sheave system properly.

+Derek Cosgrove Generally speaking, the rope is strong enough to lose one wire and suffer no loss of strength relative to the loads we are putting on them. These are ropes that will take 5 times the load we apply to them. So at 20% of capacity they are yawning with the heaviest of picks. What deteriorates the rope is contact with things with friction. A bad sheave with grooving. Rubbing the side of the building you are constructing. Contact with a second crane will do it in a hurry. But over time, most ropes suffer from rubbing on what is called the "kick point". As the rope spools it is physically forced over by the previous wrap at two points per wrap. On big ropes on old drums, you can feel it with heavy loads running fast. It's violent. It is one of the reasons cranes went to smaller hoist drums in the last 15 years. There is less angle and wear because the fleet angle isn't so great at the outer reaches of the drum. If you have no way to get back there to see it happening, just imagine that coarse rope just rubbing another one with 5000 kg on it at high speeds. What I do if I find a broken wire is I put tape on the rope. (electrical generally). Then I have whoever is at the controls hoist up to make sure that it's a kick point issue. You'll see right where it hits. If the rope is five years old, it's time to watch it very closely. It could be that the rope is failing just because it has bent as many times as it should. I had one once go from one broken wire to 9 in one month. Keep your ropes lubed. Don't use the open gear lube. Use a penetrating aerosol that won't fling off. I use Monolec 2001. Once every three months or so. Open gear lube makes a mess and never gets into the inner cores on a rotation resistant rope. And hopefully the crane owner changes the kick point every few years. When the crane is down they can either cut off a 1/4 diameter of the drum in length, or then can pay it all off and connect what was at the tip to the drum. Either way changes the kick point and extends the life of the rope. If you want to read up on this, Casar has some great write ups. Looks like you need to start an account to get them these days. If you went to a rope dealer they might have some great technical brochures as well with more than you'll ever need to know. I have a 3 ring binder full of them. www.casar.de/Technical-Reference/Brochures Good Luck on getting your Red Seal!

+rotyag Thanks a Bunch for the info, I really appreciate it, Sir. The instructors where I go to school have stressed the important use of aerosol penetrating lubricant on cables, and had the students with whole cases of the stuff lacing the ropes and drums, and other moving parts. And we are replacing the boom hoist cable on a 50t crawler next week with 14pts Line in the bridle reeving, so that's going to be some great hands on training. I can't wait to get out in the workforce and start my apprenticeship. Excuse my terminology if I misspoke, I still tend to refer to some parts by the wrong names. Thanks again and I look forward to your future video tutorials as the ones you already posted are great!

+Derek Cosgrove That is some good hands on training. Make sure the reeving of the boom rope isn't too hands on. People lose fingers that way. De energize the crane while working. I used to erect cranes and one time the operator didn't shut the power off after I had asked him to. He stood up in the cab and hit the trolley out function. My legs were hanging between the trolley and the lower lacings of a saddle jib tower crane as I was reeving the rope. Fortunately the rope wasn't tight yet so I had that one second to react and roll back to yank my legs out before it moved. Otherwise it would have been the end of me and cranes. Always... always know your escape before you put yourself in a pinch. Teach your signal people the same philosophy. I am a bit jealous of the class. Mine was much more hands on and learn from reading and asking questions.

+rotyag Well there's 3 instructors on site with about 20 students(course requires 1 instructor per 8 students). We're all fortunate in the fact the instructors are extremely safety conscious and have decades of experience, so none of use sneezes without an Instructor over our shoulders. But as in any case, there's no way we could be taught everything they know, only time and experience will give us that. That's why I hunt videos and information during my off time from school. Without a Crane course, I wouldn't be able to get a job in Crane Operation(at least in Canada anyway), and it seems that there's a high demand for operators these days. The only hitch is finding someone to take me on as an apprentice afterwards. But from what I hear, that may not be as hard to find an apprentice spot as one would think... To get the aquired 5400hrs of apprenticeship, well that's a different story. And I don't think I can get those hours if I were to back home to the U.S.(more specifically, Atlanta) for work. But, there's alot of great high paying jobs in the oil and gas industry up here so I may not have to look far. Being a citizen of both the US and Canada makes things a bit easier too, as my options are expanded more than most people(at least when the Red Seal is finally stamped). Thank you for taking your time to reply to my questions, Sir! I truly appreciate it!

I don't think that I have seen a write up on that from any manufacturer. The way I do it with that towel is the best way I have found considering time constraints. You also have to rided the trolley inspection basket to watch it go through the sheaves. Casar used to have some good inspection materials. I got them many years ago, but I don't believe that I have anything digitized. I would try their website to start with. The rope manufacturers would be my starting point.

If the wires aren't raised, you'll generally feel a lack of smoothness as the rope runs through the towel. It takes some practice to feel it because sometimes it's just tacky grease, but you'll learn to pick up the difference in feeling. Sometimes the top of the surface will fracture and you'll have wires that haven't broken very deeply. If you've lost more than a 1/3 of the wire diameter (judgement call) then you'd count that as a broken wire. In 7/10 bad ropes, it's going to be quickly obvious. For the ones you miss, we have a lot of safety factor to help with the forgiveness of missing the problem. I've seen some amazingly bad ropes over the years. You have a lot's of leeway between rejection criteria and one that's in actual danger.

thanks man

rotyag plz post more videos when you have time

Hoist ropes need lube. You have three layers to the rope when they are rotation resistant, or non-rotating. It should be a good lube like ship to shore, or Monolec. Don't use open gear lube or stuff you find at a auto store. They are for 6x19 ropes, and even then, I wouldn't use it. They don't soak in and block the view of the condition of the rope. If it's a trolley rope, I would tell you to not lubricate it. I just found it to be a mess when people would do it to the cranes I owned. I would rather spend $150 to swap out the dry rope every 5 or 6 years and not have sticky nasty ropes to handle at each job. Most of the small ones have a fiber core. The larger ones are often galvanized. They don't rub or rotate much so it's not important.

Typically we set motion limits first. This drum in front of me has a set of plastic gears that turn with it. We adjust a screw that changes a plastic part position that rotates with the drum. We adjust it so that it hits an electrical contact that stops the crane motor and desired heights. Up and down on the hoist. In and out on the trolley. Then we load test the crane. We put on maximum weights for line pull so the drum can't lift more than it's rated. On old cranes we adjust electrical limits manually. On new cranes, we might set a limit. On some modern cranes, it reads the amperage draw and stops on it's own. Then we do that for each gear the crane has. Next we set a moment limit. That's the amount of weight a crane can lift at a given radius. Finally, we have a foundation test where we hold weights for ten minutes at that maximum moment with the weight low to prove the foundation of the crane is good.

If the kink is in the hoist rope, it's done for. If it's a trolley, it would have to be severe for me to get worried. Those are subjective opinions. You'll find it can get people worked up. Trolley ropes are often not under much stress relative to how strong they are.

Tom Bergwall Yes Sir. probably 6x36 22mm. That would be my first guess. I can't think of any tower crane hoist ropes that are not Rotation Resistant. boom ropes are often a lesser class of rotation resistant and say 8 strands instead of 15 on the outer. Some of the old cranes had a different class of ropes that had locked down swivels. Liebherr 550's and 390's from the early 80's comes to mind that way. But I would need to research the details on that. I think that I have an old Pecco and a 550 manual in the collection.

Speaking for crane owners everywhere, please don't lubricate it every month. Most crane manuals say to lubricate every 200 operating hours. You'll want to document an inspection that notes it's condition. Notes like these are just how manufacturer's protect themselves. Spraying it every 200 hours will build up on the rope and in the sheaves. You'll no longer be able to see the rope structure and you won't be able to effectively inspect it. It's really dangerous. Another danger is in that sheave build up. I've had a rope find a way to jump a sheave and get damaged due to build up. It will vary by location, but with good modern rope lubricants like Monolec 2001, Ship2Shore, or others designed to soak into the ropes, you'll find 4-6 months is when ropes are going dry and needing lubrication. And don't use "rope and open gear lube" on ropes. It does nothing for rotation resistant ropes. It's for 6x19 type ropes. For cranes I own, the only lubricant I leave on the cranes are ring gear sprays. Everything else, most operators will abusively over lubricate out of ignorance. On our cranes, we come out every three months and lubricate it. Bearings are sealed these days, so even the turntable bearing just needs to be lubricated to fight evaporation. Some operators will try to squeeze a tube of NLGI2 in there every month and it blows out the seals which introduces contaminants. Even when I explain it, the person I explain it to will not be there the next time we show up and we are left with a mess. So we stopped leaving lubricants behind. Or they will lubricate my trolley lines that don't even rub. It becomes a greasy mess to lengthen the life of a rope that costs $100 and last 5 years if ran dry. Good wire rope lubricants in the US are commonly 25 US Dollars a can. But then you only need one can every 3-4 months.

@@rotyag Sorry for the late response.. some crane oprators tell my differently. Some say i need to request some used motor oil to lubricate the hoist and others say that i should just use spray... quite having a problem with that as a starting crane operator...

@@RomanVideos1 You'll get advice from different people that doesn't quite apply correctly for your whole career. Motor oil is not good for a complex rope like a rotation resistant one. They are so dense that it will never get in. And in some locations, it will wash off in a month. The quality sprays will soak in and hold on the rope for 3-5 months at a time. Environmentally speaking, it won't be dripping as it gets hot too. Oil could work well for say a trolley rope of 6x19 construction. But it's not honestly necessary for a trolley rope. Some would disagree, including the manuals. But they don't rub and lube isn't going to lengthen the life of the rope when bending modulus is what kills them. And they are cheap. For the rope lubes, check out the rope manufacturers. Bridon, Python, Diepa. Diepa used to have really good instructions. The crane manufacturers are thinking about liabilities more than good rope performance. The really good way to lube a rope is under pressure that also cleans it, but it's cost prohibitive unless you own a large fleet with similar rope sizes. But toss the operators and my opinion aside. Go to the rope manufactures for accurate validation.

@@rotyag Thanks for the quick reply! By the way what do you think about WD40 sprays? Or they don't have anything to do with lubrication?

@@RomanVideos1 Sorry for the wait. WD is really just for pushing out water. It works decent as a very short term lubricant. I'm a fan of heavier lubes like PB Blaster. It has some holding power. I use a lot of dry graphite on bolt threads. Molykote is awesome. The price is about triple what it used to be. Comedil got me hooked on it after seeing it recommended for their bolts.