[WRE | SPOTLIGHT]
LARRY MEANS Pioneers as New ASME B30 Chairman
BY DON SAYENGA
has been representing the Wire Rope Technical Board on the B30 Committee for many years. He is the fi rst individual from the wire rope industry to achieve the prestigious, but diffi cult, role of Chairman.
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Larry Means has served on 15 of the B30 subcommittees. In 2001 he received the B30 committee’s Distinguished Service Award for his achievements. He has been registered as a professional engineer in Missouri for the past forty years. Before setting up his own consulting practice, he was employed by Wire Rope Corporation of America from 1967 to 2002. In his spare time, Larry is active with the Boys Scouts of America and with his local Church where he has served as Chair of the Trustees, Chair of the Personnel/ Parish Committee and a seat on the Executive Committee. T e American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), based in New York City, was established in 1880 primarily to address widespread problems caused by the explosion of steam engine boilers. T e eff orts of the society resulted in a new code for boiler safety adopted everywhere in the United States. Since then the “Codes and Standards” activities of ASME have created nearly 600 technical standards improving safety and effi ciency across a variety of industries. Today, ASME has over 120,000 members worldwide, and ASME standards are used in more than 100 countries globally. ASME members provide engineering and technical
expertise to policy makers in Congress, the White House Offi ce of Science and Technology, and other key federal agencies. For the wire rope industry specifi cally, one of the most important safety committees the society sponsors is the B30 main committee, which was originally formed as a result of a suggestion made in 1916 to consider cranes and derricks as a topic of interest. T e fi rst set of crane safety rules were published soon thereafter, sponsored jointly by ASME and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. T e original rules continued in force until 1962 when an American national standards committee was formed. T is was followed by a second reorganization in 1982 when the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited the committee. T e original eight-page crane safety standard has been expanded into a series consisting of thirty volumes covering advice on safe practices for cableways, cranes, derricks, hoists, jacks and slings, and many other kinds of similar equipment. In keeping with ANSI requirements, the volumes are reviewed and updated every three to fi ve years. To inhibit bias, ASME classifi es the members based upon their primary business source. No more than a third of the committee can come from any one classifi cation. Furthermore, the primary challenge faced by the B30 Chairman is the mandatory requirement to remain neutral. New Chairman Means had one preliminary experience that may serve him well in this situation. For many years he headed the ASME B30.9 subgroup responsible for writing sling safety standards, in which he inherited a task very few engineers would envy. It was a project to create a concordance of the safety advisories for six diff erent varieties of slings commonly used in factories and at construction sites. T e project required a lot of work, but it was completed successfully. Each ASME committee has a charter requiring it to seek the ANSI requirements of a “consensus” of experts in fi elds such as design, measurement, maintenance, health, or safety. Mean’s fi rst two meetings in September 2011 and January 2012 gave the B30 committee a chance to adjust to his new style of leadership. T e meetings are announced in advance and are open to the general public. Please visit the events page of the ASME website for more information:
www.asme.org. ❙
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 17
n the summer of 2011, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers elected Larry Means as Chairman for the B30 Committee. T e B30 members are technically qualifi ed individuals with a concern and willingness to work within the committee’s charter. Means, a well-known wire rope consultant based in Saint Joseph, Missouri,
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