26.09.2012

CICA issues first Gold Plate

The Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) has issued its first major inspection verification Gold Plate.

The first plate was issued for a Liebherr LTM1080/1 owned by Universal Cranes, the superstructure of which has completed 14,429 hours, and the carrier has travelled 121,206 kilometres since its manufacture in 1999.

The strip-down and rectification inspection/work was supervised by M&I Inspection Services, while D. Jones of Metrotech was the Engineer who signed off on the next major inspection due date - December 2021.
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Brandon Hitch (L) of CraneSafe/CICA presents the first Gold Plate to Joachim Schalck of Universal Cranes

CICA carries out a ‘desk-top audit’ of the major inspection report to verify that it conforms to Australian Standards, Crane Codes of Practice (including the new Safe Work Australia copy), OH&S regulations and sound engineering principles.

If the report meets all these requirements, CICA will issue a ‘Gold Plate’ to fix to the crane that confirms to all site personnel and regulators, that the crane has undergone a legitimate major inspection complete with the necessary documentation and testing.

In some cases, the inspection requirements will have been carried out but not documented correctly which will preclude the owner from obtaining the Gold Plate. However the process allows for additional information to be requested and submitted, in order to enable the CICA engineer to reassess the original submission, and if the additional information received confirms that the crane is in accordance with the four main criteria listed above, the Gold Plate can still be issued.

CICA chief executive Alan Marshall said: “CICA has been at the forefront of ensuring that major inspections meet the requirements of Australian Standards, existing Codes of Practice and the expectations of the various regulators. However there are still some in the crane industry looking for the cheapest possible solution. Single page major inspection documents are still being issued with minimal justification for approving the crane as safe for continued operation. These types of approvals basically are the reason why the CICA Major Inspection Verifications programme has been implemented.”