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July 8, 2011
Washington, DC - On July 8, 2011, the final rule on OSHA Standards Improvement Project became effective. The updated standards include regulating the use of slings for general industry (1910.184) and in construction (1926.251).
The revised changes include:
Removing all the load capacity tables for slings that were in the previous OSHA standards. The load capacity tables in these standards were based on the unrevised ASME/ANSI B30.9 - 1971 standard, which is now obsolete, as it no longer conforms to the load capacity tables of the updated B30.9 - 2010 industry standards.
Sling Markings - employers now must use only slings with permanently affixed identification markings that show the maximum load capacity for each sling.
When loading slings, employers must be prohibited from exceeding the load capacity indicated on the identification markings.
Any sling from which the identification markings have become detached must be taken out of service until new labels are obtained and affixed.
In the original OSHA 1910 regulations, employers were not required to permanently affix identifications on the wire rope slings that were being used. It is now a requirement to have all wire rope slings permanently affixed with identification, no exceptions will be made to this rule. OSHA is adding identical requirements for identification markings on wire-, natural-, and synthetic-fiber slings in 1910.184 and 1926.251. The revised standard prohibits employers from loading slings in excess of the recommended safe working load as displayed on the permanently affixed identification markings. Reliance on the informationmarked on the sling simplifies compliance for employers by ensuring that employers use slings with readily available, up-to-date load ratings.