Lift truck attachment: applicable Norm/Standards

[Antotabo]

Hello world !

I'm in the process of design of an equipment that will be used to lift other odly shaped equiments with a Forklift. It will only be used internally and sporadically by other engineers and technicians. Its a configurable structure comprised of HSS tubes that fits on the fork and has 3 posts that extend upward to support the load.

I've been looking for applicable Norms and Standards that would apply but I could not find any that match the job.
I know the existence of "ANSI B56.1 Safety standard for lift truck" but it barely mention lift attachments saying it must be used per manufacturer's recommendation... It doesn't help designing one.
I also know the existence of "ASME B30.20 Below-the-Hook Lifting Devices" along with "BTH-1" but the thing I'm designing does not seem to be the scope of this one either.

So the question is : Is there any norm or standard that would better fit the bill here ? Please help.

Things I'm interested in mainly :
- If covered under any norm at all or is it just a grey zone where engineering judgement does the trick
- Acceptable load factors (i.e. Horizontal and Vertical G-loading of lift attachment)
- Acceptable safety factors
- Minimum requirement for proof loading and if so the proof factor
- Minimum requirement for qualification/inspection
- Other considerations

Thanks in advance !

PS: Is it that much of a mess in this world to find regulations, norms and standards that applies to the tasks we do in our profession ? Or am I just ignorant ? If you know a good way to navigate such information, please educate me.

 

[dvd]

Some guidance from OSHA on Rigging equipment for material handling -

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1926/1926.251

With quite a few standards interpretations discussed -

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/interlinking/standards/1926.251/standard_interpretations

 

[JStephen]

I would use BTH to the extent applicable.
One issue I ran into long ago is that the forklift manufacturers tell you the maximum load, but not how that load is achieved. In particular, is it limited by strength or by overturning? If your application is considerably below the forklift capabilities, no problem, but if you need to design right up to the limit, you may have problems getting the design information you would require.
On the lack of information- there's a couple of things. One is, that if your fulltime job was designing attachment widgets for forklifts, you'd know where all this stuff was, what existed, what didn't, what the regulations were, etc. So a lot of the issue there is just doing something outside your normal sphere of work. The second issue is that the proposed item doesn't fall into the normal categories: it's not part of the forklift, it's not below a crane hook, etc. So it falls through the cracks as it were. But I think the design philosophy of BTH and B30.20 would apply. I'd have to read the current standards to see if they literally applied or not.

 

[BrianE22]

I'd try a manufacturer (like Vestil - google search). They may list any standards their parts comply to. You could also email their sales people.

My guess everyone copies the leader (whomever that is).

 

[Stick.]

ASME B30.20 might be more applicable than you think. While the name makes it sounds like it only applies to devices connected to a crane hook, the actual definitions in the standard are significantly more broad than that, basically covering anything that connects a load to a hoist, with a hoist being defined as "a machinery unit that is used for lifting and lowering". Having said that, I'm far from an expert on lifting devices, and my recommendation based on that is to farm this out to a company that does lifting devices or fork truck attachments all day, every day. As JStephen pointed out, they'll know all the applicable standards, load factors, testing and documentation requirements, etc. A lifting device isn't something you want to get wrong, so I'm a fan of involving the experts at some point.