The latest revision of the American national standard for mobile cranes, ASME B30.5-2014, brings major changes to the rules governing how crane users are to work within a lifting machine's capacity range, or load chart, and offers new guidance for inspection, maintenance and testing procedures.
Mobile cranes today are designed to a finer edge than in 1968, when the American Society of Mechanical Engineers published the first B30.5 standard. Cranes now use lighter, stronger materials and have more lifting power. These engineered systems include parts built to varying design factors. Overloading a component could compromise the system.