ConstructionPadding sharp edges and keeping hands off the sling
A steel beam has hard, sharp edges where the slings bear on it, and the sling bites down the moment the crane takes up the slack. You protect the slings from those edges and keep your hands out of the pinch while it tightens, from the first pull to the moment the beam rests again.
Free to startScenarios
- A wire rope sling around the flanges of the beam.
- A synthetic web sling around a beam with sharp corners.
- The beam has landed and rests on the slings.
The steps
- Find every sharp edge where a sling will bear on the beam.
- Pad or protect the sling from each of those edges.
- Check the fittings of a web sling have no sharp edges that could damage the webbing, and the end attachments of a fiber rope sling have no sharp edges or projections.
- On a wire rope sling, check that protruding strand ends in the splices are covered or blunted.
- While the sling is being tightened around the beam, keep hands and fingers out from between the sling and the load.
- Let the crane take up the slack without shock loading.
- Once the beam rests on the sling, never pull the sling out from under it.
Safety rules that stop the station
- Hands or fingers are never placed between the sling and its load while the sling is tightened.
- A sling is never pulled from under a load that is resting on it.
To pass
- Every bearing edge padded or protected before the lift.
- Hands clear of the sling every time it tightens.
- The slings freed only after the beam no longer rests on them.
Official source
29 CFR 1926.251, Rigging equipment for material handling
GovInfo publishes 29 CFR 1926.251 free: 1926.251(c) sets the padding of sharp edges, hands out of the sling, no shock loading and no pulling a sling from under a resting load.
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