Note! Service life! Change in the regulations

The amendment of the Regulation of the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology of 30 October 2018 on the technical conditions of technical inspection as regards the operation, repair and modernisation of material handling equipment introduced a variety of new and yet highly important amendments that impact further operation of material handling equipment.

Updated regulations particularly aim at regulating the area of material handling equipment operation of unknown history and mileage of the equipment, at the same time maintaining the maximum acceptable level of its safe functioning.

The most important change made was to introduce the requirement to reconstruct the operation history of the material handling equipment to evaluate its technical condition – called SERVICE LIFE – and therefore the possibility of further operation. In other words, based on e.g.: technical data of the equipment, number of cycles of operation, professional evaluation of the technical condition taking into account the actual operation conditions, it was necessary to implement the need to count and present the results to the unit dependent to the Office of Technical Inspection or Transportation Technical Supervision in a form of documentation. The results are of importance for the user, since badly or improperly calculated service life may significantly lower the operation period of the equipment, and therefore expensive overhauls may be necessary. On the other hand, a fraud attempt and specifying false data in the calculations may lead to penal liability under perjury. Bear in mind that the Inspectors of the Inspection/Supervision Offices have been in contact with your equipment for quite a long time now and they know their capabilities and the average number of cycles during the day, week, month and even years. They also have their own calculation methods of the service life, so they may easily verify the data presented for acceptance.

The need to monitor the level of SERVICE LIFE of material handling equipment does not contain exclusions and applies to all the equipment subject to the legal obligation to register at the Office of Technical Inspection and used for at least 12 months.

1. Checking the entries concerning operation of the material handling equipment (maintenance logbook, reports, service manual etc.),
2. Equipment alignment measurement,
3. Equipment and mechanisms inspection,
4. Electric equipment inspection,
5. Non-destructive testing of permanent connections,
6. Checking the torque and correctness of temporary fastenings,
7. Checking the condition of gears in particular mechanisms and slack assessment,

8. Thickness measurement of the load-bearing elements walls,
9. Technical condition assessment as regards the connection and cooperating elements,
10. Checking the gas system,
11. Checking the correct operation of mechanism protecting equipment,
12. Shakedown test without load,
13. Start-up with load,
14. Documentation from “SERVICE LIFE” test.