Lifting devices are designed for a number of cycles, a defined load spectrum and a finite service life. Their states must be monitored throughout their operation.

Periodic regulatory tests provide a portion of this monitoring only. They do not provide information on the ageing and fatigue of the structures, as evidenced by the persistence of serious accidents and incidents on the operating machinery, the origin of which is the onset of cracks due to fatigue.

We propose VIGILEV® a specific assessment approach based on  ISO 12482 : 2014 (Cranes – Monitoring for crane design working period). VIGILEV®  provides  operators with a valuable insight of the fatigue status of  their equipment as well as direct controls and risk based inspections. It is deployed in all French ports and by a growing number of industrialists. It consists of the following steps:

• Detailed technical inspection visit
• Operation and maintenance data collection. Reconstruction of the crane duty history
• Calculation of the global indices (fatigue factor, safe working period, foreseen ageing factor)
• Determination of residual life of the machine as a whole
• Finite Element Modeling and crane stress calculation
• Determination of structure and mechanism critical components and assessment of remaining lifetime
• Recommendation for actions and Risk Based Inspection program
• Recommendation of crane monitoring program including periodic inspection to be carried out