Before rigging begins, which rating should be checked to prevent overload?

Before rigging begins, which rating should be checked to prevent overload?

• A. Lowest capacity rating
• B. Highest capacity rating
• C. Length of span
• D. Weight of controller

Answer: (A)

Before rigging begins, the focus is on identifying the weakest link in the rigging setup. The safe load is determined by the component with the lowest rated capacity, because that part will fail first if the load is too high. So you check the rating of every piece and base the lift on the lowest capacity present. This prevents overload since the overall system can only handle what the weakest component allows. The length of the span and the weight of a control device aren’t ratings that limit lifting capacity, and relying on a higher rating would ignore the real bottleneck in the rigging.

Before rigging begins, the focus is on identifying the weakest link in the rigging setup. The safe load is determined by the component with the lowest rated capacity, because that part will fail first if the load is too high. So you check the rating of every piece and base the lift on the lowest capacity present. This prevents overload since the overall system can only handle what the weakest component allows. The length of the span and the weight of a control device aren’t ratings that limit lifting capacity, and relying on a higher rating would ignore the real bottleneck in the rigging.