ESTA
The Crane Interest Group through the CPA are members of ESTA, the leading European association for the abnormal road transport and mobile crane rental industry and represents national trade associations whose members are mobile crane and access platform, rental and abnormal road transport companies. ESTA are member of the International Crane Stakeholders Assembly [ICSA] from across many countries including Australia, Japan, North America and Canada.
ETSA is further represented on various crane and heavy transport working groups inc. FEM and CEN e.g. EN13000. ESTA also has a library of publications and can be accessed at: https://estaeurope.eu/library/.
More information on ESTA can be found at https://estaeurope.eu/
ESTA has also introduced a European Crane Operator Licence (ECOL) which had much input from CPA Technical Staff. It was introduced in 2019 to overcome the issue of each European member state having its own rules for the professional competence and certification of crane operators. These rules ranged from compulsory to optional and even to no rules at all. The differences can lead to confusion, have a negative impact on safety and also prevent the mobility of crane operators throughout Europe. For this reason, ESTA developed the ECOL programme of training, assessment and certification system for the optimum distribution of safe and qualified mobile crane operators within Europe.
More information on ECOL can be found at: https://ecol-esta.eu/
ESTA Ad-blue Survey
ESTA are currently conducting a surfvey on the use of AdBlue and which appears to be causing issues with mobile crane. More information can be found at:
ESTA Spring Meeting 2024 – Presentation Slides
At the ESTA crane meeting, held in April 2024, a number of topics were discussed including; the winch maintenance guidance publication; the confusion over CE logos and labelling; and the development of a Lifting Operations Risk Management Guidance publication.
The slides from each presenter can be downloaded below.
ESTA publishes new guide on mobile crane winch gearbox maintenance
ESTA has published the first edition of the association’s new guide which is now available to members. The document was officially launched at ESTA’s 2024 Spring meeting in Paris alongside a special calculation tool that will help crane owners calculate the remaining hours of usage for the winch, based on its usage and the related wear and tear. The publication was drafted by a small group, led by ESTA’s crane expert Klaus Meissner along with representatives from Mammoet and Sarens, with further consultation across the industry with rental companies, crane manufacturers and four gearbox manufacturers – Zollern, Liebherr Components, Siebenhaar and Rexroth.
ESTA hope that the sector will enact the guidance and take the opportunity to improve the operation and maintenance of crane winches and which may as a result, increase their life and reduce costs. It may further minimise oil changes and ESTA feel there is a better way of judging the state of the gearbox. The requirement to calculate the remaining life of a winch was initially introduced in Germany in the 1990s and a crucial safety consideration because if the crane winch gearbox fails, the crane’s load can become uncontrollable.
The current maintenance regime generally involves a major overhaul at around ten years to check that the winch gearbox is still in good condition, but many experts argue that the ten-year threshold is an arbitrary deadline and does not reflect the equipment’s actual usage. ESTA’s expert group has produced a maintenance regime that is based on technical analysis, for example by implementing regular oil analyses, that will provide detailed information for other inspections. This could both improve safety by catching unexpected problems earlier and, in some cases, might save costs by prolonging the use of the winches beyond current time frames.
ESTA stresses that the publication and calculation tool is only for guidance. It is not a regulation or standard and should not be treated as such, and it cannot replace the user’s own knowledge of relevant directives, laws and regulations.
ESTA is seeking feedback from their members on the effectiveness of the document and is planning to undertake a review in a year’s time.
The winch maintenance publication can be downloaded below along with a lifetime calculator tool.
Comments about the publication can be made to Peter Brown at peter@cpa.uk.net and will be forwarded to the ESTA Technical Team.