Common sense is not very common and a “Reasonable person” by legal definition is a moron.
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It’s still in ABS rules / guides as SWL. Where it is defined as
“…The load that each complete crane assembly is approved to lift on the cargo hook excluding the weight of the gear (hook, block, wire, etc)”
Oh yeah, the ones that put the cable clamps on that frigate that slipped away.
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Aha … that explains the Orion 1 debacle, they didn’t add the weight of that big hook or all that wire!
Ah, the lawyers, any perceived, claimed or contrived confusion = $$$$.
I’m not a physicist but I am not sure that you can fully design anything to compensate for all possibilities of a dynamic load. As an example if a load is free dropped for 20 or 30 feet and then suddenly stopped what would the dynamic load be? So we’ll soon get a 10 page book defining everything and all the caveats with the strap you have for lifting.
Those calculations would be the responsibly of end user.
This could be me. “Rated Capacity” strikes me as a better term than SWL.
Is it necessarily true that the legal system will work society further and further from reality? Seems like in many cases the opposite will be true.
Poll:
How many people read the title and went ‘F@#$, we’re going to have to repaint the crane’
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When I was doing heavy lift surveys WLL was the preferred term.
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Yes, not a good title, changed it.
Just curious as to where that comes from.
Talked to my brother that runs a Kubota commercial pile driver. Nothing is noted/labeled on the crane arm itself… There is a manual that has to be kept per rules by OSHA and whoever in the cab regarding calculating loads. However, the different attachments for the end of the crane are stenciled/labeled as to swl and wll. Newer stuff is wll.
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You can call it anything you want. IMHO it should be called that which best conveys the message. How about simply “Capacity” if you want to go that route? The case for retaining “SWL” is that it is intuitively understood by a lot of people, which I see as a rather strong argument. Like I said, I had to google “WLL” when it first appeared, although the format (x tons) led me to believe that it was probably some kind of load limit.
What irks me is the idea that we should avoid calling things “safe” because someone could come back with “you said it was safe”. I believe this is a self fulfilling prophecy of the worst kind. The managers I refer to are the equipment manufacturer executives who buy into this shit.
I can’t say that with much authority, but I think I see an increasing number of legal devices intended to protect people from themselves.
I think that’s true but it being driven by the fact that society has become more complex, an individual cannot be sufficiently knowledgeable in other fields, so simplified ways to communicate to non-experts is needed. The legal system is just the tool by which forces communication to become more clear.
Rated Capacity is more clear and precise because it implies that a specific process was used to rate the item and invites further investigation.
As far as switching, sometimes better to start with a clean slate.