Washington — In response to several fatalities resulting from damaged or defective welds on aerial lifts, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued a safety alert.
Published March 23, the alert details an incident in which a weld splice on the repaired arm of a lift fractured because of poor weld quality, killing a mechanic on board. In another incident, a welder died when a lift arm “catastrophically fractured at a critical weld connecting the arm support to its lift cylinder.” In this case, cracks in the weld and the surrounding metal went undetected.
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MSHA provides several best practices to help avoid similar tragedies:
- Use only qualified welders to perform all welding.
- Inspect all welds after installation and repairs, and perform periodic inspections on welds during an aerial lift’s service life.
- Consult with manufacturers to determine service/fatigue life of mechanical systems or parts.
- Educate users on proper lift operations, including how to avoid exceeding “design capacity.”
- Perform routine examinations of metal components for signs of weakness, corrosion, fatigue cracks, bends, buckling or missing connectors, etc.
- Use nondestructive test methods to detect cracks that might be indistinguishable to the human eye.
- Remove cracked mechanical components from service immediately.
“Small cracks can quickly grow and lead to catastrophic fracture,” the alert warns.
