Understanding Crane Load Charts: A Comprehensive Guide

When a crane lifts a load that exceeds its capacity, the results can be tremendously detrimental to your construction site. Whether it is the crane breaking down, the load crashing to the ground or people becoming injured, the effects can involve every individual onsite. Without properly understanding how to read crane load charts, this can easily become an incident you are positioned in.  

Naturally, selecting a crane can be a challenging task, especially when crane load charts rely on numerous variations that factor on the information of the lift capacity of the crane, the lift range, the boom angle, the movement on the crane and so forth. With these many factors, you truly need to know the significance of understanding your crane.  

Allow us to share the steps to understanding your crane load charts, which can overall make the selecting of your next crane effortless.  

Understanding your crane load chart:  

Crane load charts allow crane operators to maintain the safe use of cranes, with the calculation of load limits to ensure it will not exceed the lifting capacity and cause accidents. Most cranes now have computer indicators to exhibit when you are approaching or exceeding a crane’s capacity but understanding how to read a crane chart is still an essential skill you should have, as if the proper precautions aren’t planned then accidents could occur.   

These are the factors you need to understand:  

• The Lift Capacity 

The lift capacity communicates to the operator how much load a crane can carry based on the load dimensions, the angle of the lift and the height the load is lifted to. This measure can communicate the lift’s nature and if the product or material you want to transport can be effectively achieved.   

• The Lift Range 

The lifting range can be demonstrated through a chart diagram (crane sizing chart) that clearly illustrates the required boom length given for the lift distance and height. Depending on the weight of your materials, this length can change.  

                                                                                                                                                                                  *Load Chart for SuperCrane 1485

• The Boom Angle  

The stability of the crane is determined through the approximation of the boom angle- with the longitudinal centerline of the boom and the horizontal centerline as the measurement.  If your crane lifts a piece of material above its allowed weight or at an angle too high, the crane could lose balance.  

• The Movement 

When transporting a piece of material, your crane can often move or rotate to complete your task. Movement, speed and rotation are factors that must be considered in order to maintain the stability of this machine. If movement is not considered the crane could lose balance and tip over.  

As some projects require cranes to rotate a full 360 degrees, you must understand that it is important to educate yourself on these requirements.  

• The deduction  

To actually determine the amount of weight your crane can lift, the weight of the crane and its accessories should be deducted from the total weight.  

Why is it important:  

Every crane operator must know and clearly understand how to interpret and read a crane load chart, in order to operate the machine. The load chart has been created and designed for a specific reason, with proper guidelines in place for crane operators to understand. This could be the difference between danger and safety onsite for all involved.  

Before making your decision on a crane, it is important to do your research and speak to a specialist.