ANSI : What they are changing & Why you need to know

What is ANSI?

The American National Standards Institute, or ANSI for short, is a nonprofit organization that creates and publishes thousands of norms and guidelines that directly impact businesses in nearly every sector of our country. ANSI is expected to update current standards regarding access equipment design in late 2017. In order for North American manufacturers and operators to be in compliance with the new standards they will need to take new safety features into consideration.

 

The ANSI standards control stability, testing and safety requirements to monitor equipment manufacturers to guarantee the buyer receives and uses certified machines. “The new ANSI standard will broadly bring North American machines in line with equipment currently in the European market, reducing global variances,” spoken by Barry Greenaway, product manager, Skyjack.

 

The new ANSI A92 Mobile Elevating Work Platform (MEWP) Design, Safe-use and Training suite of standards, including  A92.22 for safe use and A92.24 for training, will be replacing the current standards A92.5 for boom supported platform and A92.6 for scissor type platform. The new standards issue new requirements such as new wind ratings, stability testing and active load sensing. Also, instead of using “aerial work platform”, it is now “mobile elevating work platform” (MEWP) terminology. So, because of these changes, familiarization and training will be required.

Key Changes

Getting Familiar 

Manufactures have one year to stop productions on machines that meet the old standards from when the new standards are published. Existing machines will still be approved for use and they will not have to be updated to meet the new standards. The new standards have one single document that will cover all responsibility for MEWPs. The A92.20 standard will allow operators to self-familiarize and recognizes online theory training. Supervisors of MEWP operators will also need to become familiar and take training under the new standard.

 

“Education and proper training will be key for rental companies and operators when it comes to successfully adapting to the new ANSI changes,” Greenaway said. “We also recommend rental companies allocate adequate resources to respond to customer inquiries about the new ANSI standards.”

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