CSA B167-16 standard replaces 2008 version and covers overhead cranes and related lifting equipment.
The Canadian Standards Association has recently published a new version of its B167 standard for overhead cranes, gantry cranes, monorails, hoists, and jib cranes.
CSA B167-16 standard replaces 2008 version and covers overhead cranes and related lifting equipment.
B167-16 – the 16 stands for 2016 – replaces the B167-08 version published in 2008.
Among the changes is that the new version has an “expanded scope to include manual hoists and similar equipment,” CSA project manager Jeffrey Kraegel said by email. A technical committee recognized that potential hazards also apply to manual lifts, “and there is no other CSA standard dealing with this,” Kraegel said. The technical committee also noticed a need for “higher-level involvement” in planning and safety, he noted. “Safety measures are more likely to be understood, communicated, and followed if they are backed up by an organized management plan,” he said.
For that reason, the new version includes a clause on management responsibilities for planning, procedures, risk management, training, and documentation.
The latest version also makes fewer references to the International Organization for Standardization, a.k.a. ISO.
“Users said they wanted to see important requirements in B167 itself, rather than having to look to other documents,” Kraegel said.
Exceptions were for topics outside the scope of the standard.
Users also requested clear descriptions about the types of inspections required and when and how they are to take place, he said.
So the new version of B167 contains “updated updated targets and timing” for such things as function checks performed by operators.
Other changes include “revised and expanded qualification requirements for service technicians and crane inspectors” and “additional detail on documentation and logbooks.”
Until provinces and territories reference the standard in their safety regulations, B167- 16 is a voluntary standard, Kraegel said. “It is hoped that the regulators will recognize the improvements in the new edition and update their references.”
In developing the new standard, the technical committee looked at other international standards, “but the final product had to take into account the specific situations encountered in this country, where we have more remote sites and extreme weather conditions,” he said.
The full 81-page B167-16 standard can be purchased through the CSA Group’s website for $120. New editions for other crane safety standards are also in the works at the CSA. They include Z150 for mobile cranes, Z150.3 for articulating boom cranes, Z248 for tower cranes, and C22.2 No. 33 for the construction and testing of electric cranes and hoists.
