Section 26: Cranes and other lifting machines

(1) All parts and working gear whether fixed or movable, including the anchorage and fixing appliances of every lifting machine, shall be of good construction, sound material, adequate strength and free from patent defect and shall be properly maintained.
(2) All such parts and gear as aforesaid shall be thoroughly examined at least once in every period of fourteen months and also after every substantial alteration or repair, by a person approved for the purposes of his section by the Director of Factories by certificate in writing.
(3) No lifting machine shall be taken into use in any factory for the first time in that factory unless it has been tested, and all such parts and working gear of the machine as are specified in subsection (1) of this section have been thoroughly examined, by a person approved by the Director of Factories for the purposes of this section as aforesaid and-
(a) a certificate of such a test and examination specifying the safe working load or loads of the machines and signed by the person making the test and examination has been obtained; and
(b) a report for each crane or lifting machine in the prescribed form has been filed with the Director of Factories,
and the certificate shall be kept available for inspection.
(4) All rails on which a travelling crane moves and every track on which the carriage of a transporter or runway moves shall be of proper size and adequate strength, and be properly laid, adequately supported or suspended, and properly maintained.
(5) There shall be plainly marked on every lifting machine the safe working load or loads thereof except that, in the case of a jib crane so constructed that the safe working loads may be varied by the raising or lowering of the jib, there shall be attached thereto either an automatic indicator of safe working loads or a table indicating the safe working loads at corresponding inclinations of the jib or corresponding radii of the load.
(6) No lifting machine shall, except for the purpose of a test, be loaded beyond the safe working load as marked or indicated under subsection (5) of this section.
(7) If any person is employed or working on or near the wheel track of a self-propelled overhead travelling crane in any place where he would be liable to be struck by the crane, effective measures shall be taken to ensure that the crane does not approach within four metres of that place.
(8) A lifting machine shall not be operated except by a person trained and competent to operate that machine, except that it shall be permissible for such machine to be operated by a person who is under the direct supervision of a qualified person for the purpose of training; and no person under eighteen years of age shall be employed to operate any lifting machine driven by mechanical power to give signals to the operator of any such machine.
(9) In this section the expression "lifting machine" means a crane, crab, winch, teagle, pulley block, gin wheel, transporter or runway.