Abstract

Every year, four-to-five Québec workers are victims of serious accidents (including two-to-three deaths) resulting from the contact of mobile cranes with live electrical wires. Because of their poor reliability and safety, currently available range-limiting devices are not widely used. This project was undertaken to develop a safe and reliable device to prevent lifting apparatus from entering dangerous areas. Functional criteria were developed in collaboration with end-users, and a safe and reliable prototype incorporating electromechanical relays was produced and installed on a crane. Future work will allow the operational characteristics of the crane-device pair to be determined, and will result in the development of a detailed operating manual. The technology developed in this project can also be applied to other types of equipment entailing similar risks, e.g. concrete pumps and truck booms, both responsible for many accidents. The selection, design and testing of some of the key components upon which the system's safety and reliability depend were performed by the CRIQ.