DESIGNED FOR A LIFE AT SEA
Marine elevators are designed and built to cope with the tough demands of a vessel at sea. Marine elevators should:
- Withstand rough weather conditions and ship movements, shocks, and vibrations;
- Perform reliably in heavy seas: up to ±10º rolling for a period of 10s, or up to ±5º pitching for a period of 7s;
- Have high-quality electrification and components that meet international marine safety standards;
- Include advanced control and monitoring systems’
- Feature cars and landing doors that are approved and certified by major classification bodies;
- Systemic failures related to fatal crushes in elevators on ships.
Similar systematic failures have been identified in all of these fatal accidents. The following were considered to be some of the key safety issues:
- Elevator instruction manuals lacked unambiguous and useable safety guidance;
- No proper risk assessments were in place for elevator maintenance as part of the safety management system;
- Risk assessments that did exist were not effectively implemented;
- Crew were not aware of—or did not consider—all of the hazards associated with working in the elevator. An example of this is the counterweights that moved down as the lift cage moved up, causing harm;
- Untrained personnel were used to carry out maintenance and repairs on the ship’s elevators;
- No appropriate safeguards were in place—such as isolation lock- out—to ensure that the elevator cage did not inadvertently move while the crew were working in the elevator shaft.
EXPECTATION
An elevator shaft is a very hazardous environment in which to work. The potential dangers involve:
- height risk - injury by falling object(s) - noise - electrocution from live electrical circuits
- unanticipated movement of the elevator cage.
AMSA stresses the importance of conducting a proper risk assessment and implementing relevant procedures, which are applied in practice to ensure the safety of crew working on a ship’s elevator.
AMSA also recommends planning for elevator maintenance or deferring elevator maintenance work until the vessel is in port and utilizing a trained manufacturer’s technician.
NOTES ON ELEVATOR SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE
Many vessel owners and operators often wonder about finding a reliable marine elevator service company. How does one determine quality? Who is qualified? Must one use an OEM-approved agent only? What does it take for a marine elevator service company to be certified? What are the rules and regulations governing the marine elevator industry?
All valid questions, but not so easy to answer. Let's try and clear up the confusion. The following report provides a guideline for owners of marine elevators worldwide.
ISO and EN
There are various norms for elevators on vessels (or “lifts on ships” as they are also referred to); most used are the ISO 8383 and the EN81/1 and 2 (traction and hydraulic elevators). These two norms give general guidelines on how to build marine elevators and how and by whom they should be inspected on a regular basis.
Owners often think that marine elevator companies can be ISO 8383 or EN81/1 approved, but such a thing just doesn’t exist. The ISO
and EN codes of practice only set out guidelines for marine elevator settings and how to perform inspections; there are no diplomas that can be obtained.
Clause 12.3 of ISO 8383 shown above contains an interesting but also confusing definition regarding safety inspections: “The maintenance operations shall be carried out by ‘authorized lift maintenance personnel’ ””. What is the actual definition of “authorized lift maintenance personnel”? And how can one become “authorized”?
The person responsible for lifts at AFNOR, the French Standardization Association and its ISO institute for normalization (
www.afnor.org) steers us in the right direction:
“The ISO 8383 standard has purposely been published since 1986 without that particular definition. Currently there is an ISO enquiry about possible revision of this standard."
AFNOR is preparing a proposal which might be integrated into future revised drafts of EN 81-1 under 3.1.2: authorized person (personne autorisée): “only a competent person with the permission of the owner of the lift may have access to restricted areas (machinery and pulley spaces, lift well, pit and car roof)”.
If AFNOR does implement this amendment, it would finally be stated in writing who must authorize marine elevator service companies. It is the owner, not the OEM or an OEM- approved agent.
CLASS
Classes (Lloyds, DNV, BV, GL, etc.) only refer to the ISO 8383 and do not add further instructions or guidelines, except for RINA. In RINA’s paragraph about elevators, the need for the owner to authorize the marine elevator service company is added. Quite interesting, this is exactly what AFNOR might be adding to the ISO 8383!
People sometimes think that marine elevator companies can be Class approved, but such approval does not exist. Classes do not have an approval system in place for marine elevator service companies.
The Report • June 2021 • Issue 96 | 77
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