Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Regulations Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Regulations(1) A hoist tower means a vertical tower of rectangular section, within which loads are raised or lowered by means of a guided platform, guided bucket, or other convenient guided medium.
(2) The tower is maintained in an upright position by guys or struts, or more commonly by being secured to an adjacent building or structure.
(3) Each of the 4 sides, or faces, of the tower shall comprise a simple truss of plain orthodox design, capable of resisting transverse forces.
(4) Neither the horizontal width nor the horizontal depth of a hoist tower shall exceed 6 feet, or be less than 5 feet.
(5) All hoist towers shall be constructed of members not less in strength, rigidity and reliability than those prescribed by table 139, and no tower shall exceed the relevant and appropriate height prescribed, nor shall any panel of it be of any greater panel length.
Table 139 Tower hoists for constructional, building, demolition or excavation works (for hoisting materials only), maximum heights and panel length and minimum dimensions of members
120 § | 200 | alum-inium alloy * | 60 | round tube * | 1.9 outside diameter × 0.176 wall thickness | round tube * | 1.9 outside diameter × 0.176 wall thickness | round tube * | 1.9 outside diameter × 0.176 wall thickness | or | ditto | ditto |
round tube ** | 1.9 outside diameter × 0.176 wall thickness |
* These must be of approved type and quality and material.
† This may be measured as a vertical distance from centre to centre of the horizontal braces referred to in note II below.
‡ Provided tower is fully supported against wind and other lateral forces by being braced in an approved way to a building or structure equivalent to it.
§ This height may be increased by 30 feet if the major load or reaction applied by headbeams to tower is divided equally between 2 main verticals.
II ie, internal bracings forming the web system of the tower, as distinct from the external bracings referred to in ‡ above.
# ie, the particular whaling carrying greatest load from the headbeams, other whalings may be 6 in × 3 in pine timber. If practicable, however, the headbeams should be supported directly by the runners or by the corner posts or verticals of the tower, and in such case smaller whalings could be used.
** The vertical tubes shall in addition have approved feet or base plates.
Unless otherwise stated, all dimensions are in inches.
(6) No person shall set up, or build, or set or place in position any hoist of greater size, or speed, or for bearing greater loads, or of different construction than prescribed in this section, until the person has submitted drawings of it to the chief inspector and obtained the chief inspector's approval.
(7) The combined weight of the safe working load and the platform, bucket, or other medium by means of which it is raised or lowered shall not exceed 1 ton.
(8) No person shall attach to or impose on any hoist tower, or any part of it, any load other than that borne by the platform, bucket, or medium analogous to it, and no person shall attach to any hoist tower or to any part of it any device capable of imposing such load, unless approved by the chief inspector.
(9) However, subsection (8) shall not prevent the use of a dynamic counterbalance weight as prescribed in this section.
(10) The speed at which any load is raised or lowered shall not exceed 600 feet per minute.
(11) If dynamic (flying) counterbalance weights are employed, they shall not balance more than 70% of the unladen weight of the platform, bucket, or other medium by means of which loads are raised or lowered.
(12) The corner posts or verticals of every hoist tower shall be braced together with horizontal braces and by it divided into panels each not greater in vertical height than 5 feet.
(13) Every such panel shall contain 1 rigid, or alternatively 2 flexible braces, fixed diagonally to provide against shearing forces, and to complete the web system of the 4 trusses comprising the tower.
(14) If, for purposes of access, it is necessary to omit any diagonal brace, the panel thus weakened shall be adequately strengthened by other bracing at least equivalent to that omitted.
(15) No bolt less in diameter than 5 / 8 of an inch shall be used to connect or interconnect the members of a hoist tower, or to attach guides or runners to it.
(16) Not less than 6 such bolts shall be effectively used in each splice made in the posts or verticals of every hoist tower, 3 being above, and 3 below the joint.
(17) Each splice in the verticals of towers of metal or alloy tubes shall be designed for the full comprehensive load, and alternatively a tensile load of not less than 2 tons.
(18) Every hoist tower shall be effectively supported laterally, at a level of not more than 30 feet above its base, and after that at levels not more than 30 feet apart, so that no greater length of tower than 30 feet remains unsupported.
(19) In addition, the top of the tower shall be so supported if more than 20 feet above the next lower lateral supports, and in any case if carrying a hopper or tipping bucket or analogous device.
(20) The lateral supports shall comprise at each such level not less than 4 flexible or extra flexible steel wire rope guys, each not less in circumference than 1 1 / 2 inches and each having an ultimate tensile value of not less than 5 7 / 10 tons.
(21) Each guy rope shall have not less than 6 strands and each such strand shall have at least 19 wires.
(22) All guys shall be effectively secured to the corner posts or verticals of the tower.
(23) Alternatively, at the levels previously mentioned, the tower shall be effectively braced in an approved way to an adjacent building or other structure self-evidently capable of affording the tower complete support.
(24) In plan view all guys shall appear as straight line continuations or extensions of the diagonals of a section of the tower.
(25) A closely boarded platform of planks not less in thickness than 1 1 / 2 inches if pine timber and 1 1 / 8 inches if hardwood, shall be provided and fixed adjacent to the tower-head rope-sheaves as prescribed by section 127 (153) and (154).
(26) The platform shall be protected on sides and ends by guardrails conforming with section 154.
(27) If access to the platform cannot be safely obtained from the platform or bucket of the hoist, safe access ladders and platforms in accordance with section 154 shall be provided and fixed.
(28) The hoist tower shall be effectively enclosed and shall be kept so enclosed, by close-fitting timber boarding not less than 3 / 4 of an inch in thickness or by 18-gauge wire netting having a mesh not greater than 2 inches, or by black or galvanised steel sheeting of thickness not less than 24 gauge, positively fixed to the outside of the tower frame to a height of not less than 6 feet above the level of every floor surface, scaffolding, platform or stairway adjacent to the hoist tower.
(29) The verticals of hoist towers of metal shall not be subjected to transverse (bending) forces, and no rope deflector block or other device or attachment capable of applying such forces shall be fixed or applied to the verticals, or used.
(30) Guardrails conforming with section 154 shall be provided and fixed across all openings giving access to the interior of all hoist towers.
(31) The rails shall be so pivoted at at least 1 side of the opening that access is obtained by raising the rail or rails, which may be suitably counterbalanced.
(32) Brackets or stops shall be provided which shall prevent guardrails being lowered below horizontal.
(33) Guardrails shall be set 12 inches back from the tower face served by them.
(34) No person shall raise or otherwise displace any guardrail unless the hoist platform is stationary and level with the floor or surface served by the rail, and all rails shall be replaced in the safe horizontal position before the platform moves from the floor or surface.
(35) The horizontal clearance between the front or back edge of a hoist platform and the adjacent interior face of the tower bracings shall not exceed 2 inches.
(36) An efficient and safe signalling arrangement shall be provided for the purpose of transmitting signals to the hoist driver as to when to raise and to lower the hoist platform or vessel, and also as to when to stop all motion of the hoist.
(37) The signalling system shall be arranged so that its operation must be intentional on the part of the operator.
(38) A warning bell, the sound of which will be distinctly and continuously heard when the platform is moving in any position of its travel, shall be fitted to every hoist platform.
(39) No person other than a worker engaged in bona fide maintenance work shall ride on the hoist platform, bucket, or other medium by means of which loads are raised or lowered.
(40) No person shall instruct, permit, or allow any other person so to do.
(41) However, subsections (39) and (40) shall not apply for hoists designed and constructed in accordance with this regulation for raising or lowering workers.
(42) A notice stating that persons are prohibited from riding on the platform or other lifting medium shall be fixed and kept so fixed in such a position on the hoist platform or medium that it can be clearly read by a person standing at least 3 feet away from the edge of the hoist platform, bucket, or other lifting medium.
(43) However, subsection (42) shall not apply for hoists designed and constructed in accordance with this regulation for raising or lowering workers.
(44) Every hoist winch shall have legibly painted, and kept so painted on it, a number for purposes of identification and record.
(45) The safe working load shall be painted in positions where it will be clearly discerned by the hoist driver and by persons loading the hoist.
(46) All openings in floors, walls, or other parts of the building or structure through which a hoist operates shall be fenced with guardrails conforming with section 154.
(47) The rails shall be set 12 inches back from the adjacent edges of the openings.
(48) All winch control levers, and the controls of the engine or electric motor driving the winch, shall be so grouped that every such control lever and control is within workable reach of the person acting as driver in charge of the hoist from the position that the person takes up when driving the hoist.
(49) The maximum throw of the control lever of a friction hoist winch shall not exceed 60°.
Whip or sheerleg hoists for constructional, building, demolition, or excavation works