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Cranes, Lifting Devices and AS 4991: What Do You Actually Need? If you own, operate or maintain lifting equipment, you've probably heard terms like crane certification, lifting device inspection, engineer's certification or AS 4991 compliance. For many operators, the challenge isn't knowing that compliance is important—it's understanding exactly which requirements apply to their equipment. Whether you're running a crane hire business, operating a workshop overhead crane, mana

Australia has always been the beneficiary of extraordinary natural advantages. We are a nation built on the back of vast land, minerals, and energy. It’s why Donald Horne famously dubbed us "the lucky country"—a term often worn as a badge of pride, though Horne intended it as a stinging rebuke. His warning was simple: a nation that relies solely on its good fortune, rather than its wit, eventually runs out of luck. Today, we face a fundamental choice. Do we want to be a natio

Pressure vessels must be designed, inspected, and certified in accordance with Australian Standards to ensure safety, compliance, and operational reliability. AS 1210 governs the design and construction of pressure vessels in Australia, while AS 4343 defines hazard levels and compliance requirements. Black Square Engineering provides RPEQ pressure vessel certification, inspection, and design verification services across Queensland and Australia, supporting asset owners, manuf

AS4991 certification provides clear, documented evidence your lifting equipment is compliant and safe to use. If you operate cranes, hoists, or lifting equipment in Australia, there is a high likelihood that your equipment falls under AS 4991-2004. This standard governs the design, verification, testing, and certification of below-the-hook lifting devices—equipment such as lifting beams, spreader bars, crane forks, and custom lifting attachments that sit between the crane hoo

The Snowy Rive Hydro Scheme has become a part of Australian engineering folklore. 70 years later and the work continues. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. In heavy industry and infrastructure, not every engineering problem fits neatly within a single Australian Standard. Some projects sit in the grey space between multiple codes, requiring application of engineering judgement, experience, and defensible design thinking over finding a fit-for-purpose out

Australia’s largest active infrastructure project — the Torrens to Darlington (T2D) Tunnel Project — is set to transform South Australia’s transport network. Beneath the surface of this ambitious project lies an equally complex story: the design and verification of the specialised machinery that will make road tunnel construction possible. Black Square Engineering has been appointed by an international engineering firm to provide mechanical design verification for a highly

When the Global Financial Crisis hit in the late 2000s, many engineering dreams were shelved. But for one engineer, that pause sparked a whole new way of thinking about motion and power. Tom Hopkins had been working on a monorail project linking Denver to Vail in Colorado — a bold piece of transport infrastructure that never made it off the drawing board. When the project was abandoned, Tom found himself with time, a head full of ideas, and a stack of monorail design files. “

When it comes to Australian Standards certification, tier 1 contractors and industrial clients demand more than generic solutions. They...

When most people think about pressure vessels, they picture oil refineries or large-scale gas plants. But pressure vessels are...

From the very beginning of our operations, Black Square Engineering has been fundamentally set up and organised to allow our staff to be...

Slow-mo video of a Level 2 falling object protective structure test. This is an ISO3449 specification and delivering 12kJ impact energy...

The work professional engineers do is high stakes - whether those stakes are based on worker or public safety, financial outlay,...

As Australia shifts its economy from one of primary manufacturing, to a service and design-based industry, many manufacturers are moving...

Skids, pallets, sleds, crates and pods…. All various terms referring, in general to a similar component. These humble transport devices...

From time to time, clients require engineering certification for equipment, vehicle, workshop and transport stands, washdown or...

How many times have you said, “You can’t smoke here, it’s a hazardous area!”? The most memorable reply that I’ve heard was “This area...

Black Square Engineering have a history of designing and certifying all sort of lifting gear, to a wide range of Australian and...

#MechanicalEngineering #Cranetesting #Tugboat #MarineOrders

Rod McDonald To best understand the need for RPEQ Certification and its relationship to Australian Standards compliance, a basic...

Recently, I attended the site of a near new installation to investigate the cause of inaccuracies in process measuring equipment and...