All, Probably been asked before but, excavator on site not engaged in operations that utilise lifting accessories i.e. Just used as an excavator. Has been spotted by member of site team to have a crack in the boom. It wasn't identified on delivery and wasn't identified as part of the weekly or daily checks. RIDDOR lists 'excavator' under Lifting Operations on p.39 of the guidance as a reportable dangerous occurrence for failure of a load bearing part. So the question I'm considering is this..does an excavator that is solely excavating fall under the classification of lifting operations under RIDDOR or is this just for those excavators that are used inconjuction with lifting accessories? All thoughts and discussion welcomed. Rgds, Mike

Speaking as a materials engineer who teaches structural integrity, I would not classify this, as described, as having failed. However, you do need to do something about it. The crack may be growing, and it may be large enough to threaten the structural integrity of the machine. Therefore I suggest you get a materials engineer to examine it very soon.

This is work equipment, not lifting equipment. To be lifting equipment it's primary purpose (HSE guidance states this) must ne lifting. Therefore, not reportable under RIDDOR - in any case it has not yet "failed". It is the maintenance / inspection regims whihc seems to have failed, IMHO

Try http://www.hse.gov.uk/ri...reportable-incidents.htm Also http://www.hse.gov.uk/ri...dangerous-occurences.htm and Examples of lifting equipment are given in ACOP L113, para 32.

Harpa You have not really given us enough information. If the part with the crack in it broke into two pieces, what would be the consequences? If they are bad, then I advise you to get it checked out. There are plenty of engineers out there who can assess structural integrity. A crack is not always a harbinger of doom, but it is never a desirable feature and needs to be properly assessed.

Just because an item of equipment has a crack in it, doesn't mean its failed. The crack may not grow any more and it may be perfectly safe to continue to operate the equipment. Cracks and defects can't be avoided - the trick is to 'spot' potentially dangerous cracks and to design equipment to be tolerant of cracks, to a certain extent. Many structures have cracks in them - just you don't know about them/realise that they do. Check out fracture mechanics theory, Paris equation etc

to get the unit checked out by a competent person, and, that may well, NOT be the machine manufacturer. Oh for an edit function! Finger trouble and I don't even know which key I pressed to post!!!

I would err on the side of caution and report it .So the failiure /degree of failure can be checked and findings shared to other users .If it turns out to be not "officially reportable " all the better .Don't fear the system use it . just my opinion . regards p

Those posts advising reporting it under RIDDOR.....hello!..............IT IS NOT LIFTING EQUIPMENT! See above posts!

As is often the case with reporting dangerous occurences - it looks like people read RIDDOR (in this case) but don't actually understand the background engineering problem and theory.