G’day Todd, just wondering what sort of certification you have to have for a concrete boom in the US? In Australia we have to have a visual inspection done every year, the company I am with also has a monthly boom check sheet, which gets fill out by the operator of the pump, but every 6 years the boom has to the have a full strip down and be crack tested, all pins replaced, and rams rebuilt, quite an expensive process, around AU$1000/meter. But you cannot get onto any major job site without a current yearly and 6 yearly certification, and even on small sites if anything bad happened your insurance would be null and void without current certification.

Strange set of rules.Annual inspections is like money in the bank.This way a steady record of boom is in order for review.I don't know if you have heard of "carfax" but a more public record of cars and repairs.Very handy in as much it assists a potential buyer.

As for the operators part,he/she should do visuals daily.On pretrip insp it only takes a moment to walk around looking at boom.

You guys in oz are the only ones in the world (the little world i know anyway) that do that "Strip down" they are try'n to bring it in over here in NZ but we are getting around it at the moment....our biggest argument is that the manufacturers don't require it, thats the best reason of all, isnt it? Keep strip'n  C&M

The only reason the Australian "strip down" rule is in place is due to the fact that when the Standards Australia set up the rules on boom / crane standards .... was the fact that the two Huncretes had their Australian Agents input from the Mother Country ...... boom life cycle is 6 years.

This way we sell more booms. However it has now come back to "bit them in the arse" Huncrete sales dropped because the cost of strip downs. Now they want the rules changed.

No those rules are in place because most of the 'trash' pumps of the world (notably antonelli, fortuna) were imported to Australia here late 80's early 90's and assembled in people's backyards with absolutely no maintenance history whatsoever! People were welding booms, modifying components beyond manufactureres design etc.

A few fell over around slewing bearing, some booms didn't even have check valves at the time, 4inch design with 5inch pipeline, some booms even extended beyond their reach, cracks split chassis in some cases, was a complete nightmare those days.

They brought in the 6 year rule as a precaution of machines with no operator repair history. And a machine that may have been a "operator whore" or various owners had the tendency to be neglected in its life. This rule ensured the current or new owner fullfilled his obligations to maintain the machine is 'satisfactory condition to meet and exceed manufacturers requirements'.

Thats the truth!

Yes, you are correct about the imported trash, but more so in Melbourne rather than Sydney and Brisbane. However, if you are up on the problem boom accidents, there have been more accidents resulting in deaths, involving German Atlas booms than any other brands.

However, having sat in Standards Australia meetings where the 6 year strip down was discussed, it was pushed by the two German manufacturers' agents. Again due to the lack of USA manufacturers other than German origin.

The 6 year rule is now being considered are too extreme given the quality of later models and experiences.

Thats what I had heard that it was the crap pumps and all the back-yard stuff that went on in the 80s....lucky for us here in NZ that a boom has never killed anyone, we have had a few fail but mostly good luck that no one was hurt. We are at the crossroads now for some sort of yearly inspection (visual) and weekly checks by operator, if we dont get it sorted soon they will adoped the OZ standard....we will all have to take our booms off and just go line pumping.

Technology has advanced so fast since the 6 year strip down rule was introduced. It is now possible to crack test booms without sand blasting. Pins can also be tested and if within spec re-used rather than re-placed.

Some second hand imports in the early 80's were 10 years old. Asian stuff was trashed and never cared for let alone seen grease.

The smarter owner / operators are running pumps for two years then selling at good prices. Again this was pre Richie Bros days.

DIGGER Z over the cab had problems due to restricted weight restrictions and as a consequence a few fell over. This was moreso with Italian Putz at the time. Though the german version a few atlas booms of same design had design flaws mainly too long not enough reinforcement around arm sectins. But nor refernce to a Z under or Roll and Fold. Actually they kept manufacturing them for 15+ years!

The biggest problem with weight restrictions was the Z over (stages too long and thin) for Putzmeister. And like I said earlier those pumps where trash. Unfortunately as most were shipped here Melbourne & Sydney.