When a fish latches onto a hook, an angler pulls against the force of the catch to bring it to the surface. Many devices are in play here, but the hook, a 23,000-year-old technology, supports a load. Since its conception, the hook has fit a plenitude of purposes—fishing, suspending meat in freezers, defining the ensemble of pirates and terrifying 90s film characters, etc. Today, construction creates nearly $1.3 trillion worth of structures each year. Lifting and material-movement-related equipment is integral to the accelerated success of this industry.
Among lifting equipment, hooks play the role of lifting or pulling a load from one location to another. ASME B30.10-2019: Hooks specifies these devices.
ASME B30
Long after their conception for catching fish, hooks became a major component of construction operations. Unfortunately, safety was not always top of mind. To counteract the hazards with crane and lifting operations, in 1916, an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) committee on the Protection of Industrial Workers presented an eight-page “Code of Safety Standards for Cranes” at the annual meeting of ASME.
After numerous groups convened to advance progress in standardizing this sector, the safety standard was broken into several parts, with each volume devoted to a particular area and designated as its own American National Standard.
The ASME B30 Committee has published 30 volumes of the ASME B30 “Safety Standard for Cableways, Cranes, Derricks, Hoists, Hooks, Jacks, and Slings.” Another two volumes are currently in development. If you are interested in acquiring these standards, 29 are available as part of the ASME B30 Construction Package on the ANSI Webstore. You can also learn more about these standards in our post ASME B30 – All Volumes of the Safety Standard.
ASME B30.10-2019 is the tenth volume of the overarching safety standard.
ASME B30.10, Volume 10, Hooks
Depending on the particular function needed, the choice of hook is a decision made by the hook user and maintenance personnel. These individuals, in accordance with ASME B30.10-2019, should be trained in the selection, inspection, cautions to personnel, effects of environment, and operating practices. Specific conditions call for using a clevis hook, eye hook, articulated duplex hook, shank hook, self-locking eye hook, duplex hook, self-locking clevis hook, laminated plate hook, single plate hook, and quad hook, and the standard covers each of these types, as well as various latch types.
The provisions of ASME B30.10-2019, which apply to the fabrication, attachment, use, inspection, and maintenance of hooks, as a B30 volume, is ultimately intended to prevent and minimize injury to workers, provide direction to manufacturers, owners, employers, and users, and guide government and regulatory bodies in appropriate safety directives.
ASME B30.10-2019: Hooks is available on the ANSI Webstore. Users who need to make use of it and related ASME B30 standards can acquire them together as the Hooks Hoist and Cranes Package or the Slings and Hooks Package.
