DNV-ST-0378: Offshore and Platform Lifting Appliances

What DNV-ST-0378 covers

The standard covers three groups of equipment:

• Offshore cranes on vessels, including wind turbine installations, that handle loads outside the vessel at open sea (ST-0378 [1.1.2.1]).
• Platform cranes on offshore units and installations. A crane working from a jacked-up unit to a fixed installation counts as a platform crane.
• Pipeline and cable laying equipment, with criteria in DNV-RP-0232.

Typical duties are deck cargo handling, loading supply vessels, launch and recovery of diving systems and ROVs, subsea lifts, personnel handling, and pipe or cable laying. Certification covers the load-carrying structure; hooks, blocks, sheaves, shackles, swivels and ropes; winches, drums and the slewing bearing; brakes, power, control and safety systems; and the hydraulics, meaning cylinders and accumulators and the structural integrity of hydraulic dampers and of active heave compensation (AHC) systems.

It does not cover cable cranes, personnel lifts (elevators), jacks, overhead drilling equipment, fork lifts, portable hoisting gear or man-riding winches ([1.1.3.4]). Lifting people with a cargo crane is covered only by agreement.

From DNV 2.22 to ST-0377 and ST-0378

From 2008, DNV certified cranes to Standard for Certification No. 2.22 Lifting Appliances, one document for cranes on ships and on offshore installations. In May 2016 DNV GL replaced it with two standards: DNVGL-ST-0377 for shipboard lifting appliances and DNVGL-ST-0378 for offshore and platform lifting appliances.

The minimum dynamic factors and the test-load tables have the same values in 2.22 (2015) and in the current ST-0378. A certificate still refers to the edition it was issued against, so check which edition your contract or certificate names. Norway’s regulation on cranes on mobile offshore units still points to the May 2016 edition, or to EN 13852-1:2013, or an equivalent class standard.

ST-0377 or ST-0378? On a ship, a crane that handles loads outside the vessel at sea is an offshore crane under ST-0378. A shipboard crane that only works within the ship, or handles loads in harbour or sheltered water, falls under DNV-ST-0377 Shipboard lifting appliances, current edition February 2022.

The dynamic factor ψ

ST-0378 sizes a crane with its own dynamic factor, \psi. The vertical design load is the working load times \psi, and \psi covers inertia forces and shock:

Here V_R is the relative velocity between load and hook at pick-up (m/s), C the stiffness at the hook in kN/m (everything from the hook to the pedestal support, the rope included), W the working load in kN and g = 9.81\ \text{m/s}^2 ([4.1.3.2]). A stiff crane and a fast relative velocity give a high \psi. For an offshore crane lifting from a supply vessel, the relative velocity combines the hoisting speed with the downward velocity of the load on the vessel’s deck and, when the crane itself floats, the velocity of the crane tip:

For a crane serving supply vessels, the minimum hoisting speed V_H = 0.1\,(H_s + 1)\ \text{m/s} replaces 0.5\,V_L when it is larger ([8.2.2]).

The result may not fall below a floor that depends on the working load (Figure 1). For an offshore crane, the load chart then gives the safe working load for each significant wave height ([8.2.4]). Platform cranes have a floor of 1.15 for working loads up to 2,500 kN. Smaller subsea cranes may instead take \psi \ge 1.7 for significant wave heights up to 2 m, and then need no load chart ([9.2.2.1]).

\psi is not the dynamic amplification factor (DAF) of a marine operation, and DNV keeps the two apart. The design dynamic factor sets the crane’s capacity, normally for still water. A DAF describes the dynamic load in one specific lift and comes from the marine-operation analysis. See dynamic amplification factor.

Test loads

Every completed crane is load tested at the factory and again after installation. It is tested again after a substantial alteration or a repair to a load-bearing part, and at least every five years. In service, a competent person examines it thoroughly at least every 12 months, following ILO Convention 152.

Table 14-1. Where \psi is above 1.33, the table is read with a reference SWL of 0.75\,\psi\,\text{SWL}. A hydraulic crane limited by its relief valve lifts the greatest load it can, generally at least SWL + 10 %. First tests, and any test above 15 t SWL, use certified weights; a calibrated dynamometer is allowed only for some retests ([14.2.2]).

Loose gear, such as hooks, shackles, blocks and lifting beams, is tested on its own before first use and after any substantial alteration or repair:

Table 14-2. Where \psi is above 1.33, use the reference SWL, as for Table 14-1. Loose-gear test equipment must have been calibrated within the previous 12 months. Values from the edition of July 2019, amended October 2021; check the edition your contract names.

How equipment is certified to ST-0378

Certification runs through design review, survey during fabrication and installation, and witnessed testing and marking ([1.3]):

1. Design reviewDrawings and calculations checked against the standard: a design approval for one order, or a type approval for repeat units
2. SurveyA DNV surveyor follows fabrication, or a modified survey applies under a quality system DNV has approved. Key components carry their own DNV product certificates: hydraulic cylinders to DNV-ST-0194, accumulators, winches, sheaves, hooks and ropes
3. Factory testFunctional and load tests witnessed, then the DNV product certificate (form CMC 201)
4. InstallationSurvey after installation, tests on board, then the CG2 (ILO 152) or OLA 201 test certificate

Loose gear gets its own certificate (CG3), and so does wire rope (CG4). Design approval, type approval and the product certificate answer different questions:

On request, DNV also verifies against EN 13852, the EU Machinery Directive, the PSA guidelines and API 2C.

Heave compensators and ST-0378

ST-0378 has no separate category for a stand-alone, in-line heave compensator. It reaches one through its parts: the certification scope covers cylinders, accumulators and pressure vessels, the structural integrity of hydraulic dampers and of AHC systems, and the loose gear the unit hangs from ([1.3.1.1]). DNV-RP-N202 Heave compensating systems (June 2024) then covers the compensation itself.

• Cylinders and accumulators. Load-carrying hydraulic cylinders are approved to DNV-ST-0194 ([5.5.1.15]). Accumulators are approved separately and carry a DNV product certificate ([5.5.1.14], Table 2-3).
• Damping. A hydraulic damper’s damping counts in the approval only if specially agreed, and then only when calculations and practical tests witnessed by DNV document it ([5.2.9.10]).
• Subsea cranes. Their active and passive heave compensation (AHC and PHC) systems are designed with DNV-RP-N201 in mind, and are normally tested by simulation; sea tests can be agreed ([9.4.3], [9.5.2]).
• The compensation function. RP-N202 groups compensators by function (active, passive, adaptive passive, active-passive), by type (linear or rotating) and by how they are integrated; a stand-alone compensator is typically an in-line cylinder. RP-N202 names ST-0378 as the source of the safety principles and design methods ([1.1]). A stand-alone compensator is validated by an independent third party; one that is part of a DNV-certified lifting appliance is validated by DNV ([4.1]).

Every ND compensator is designed and classed to DNV-ST-0378, and RIGEL’s DNV Type Approval is in progress. For a project we map the route unit by unit: which parts carry product certificates, what the load test is, and what the compensator’s validation needs.

SOLAS II-1/3-13 and shipboard cranes

Since 1 January 2026, SOLAS regulation II-1/3-13 covers lifting appliances and anchor-handling winches on board ships, with their loose gear, subject to its application provisions and exemptions. New appliances must be designed, built and installed to a classification society’s rules or an equivalent standard the flag Administration accepts, then load tested and thoroughly examined before first use; existing equipment has transition requirements. Check the regulation’s scope and the flag’s position for the ship in question. DNV maps the appliance types in scope across DNV-ST-0377, DNV-ST-0378 and DNV-ST-0498. See DNV’s overview of the regulation and IMO’s entry-into-force notice.

Where to get DNV-ST-0378

DNV-ST-0378 is free to read. DNV publishes it in its Rules and Standards Explorer, which needs a free Veracity account: open DNV-ST-0378 in the Explorer, or search for “DNV-ST-0378” there. The old rules.dnv.com PDF links now redirect to DNV’s rules landing page, which points to the Explorer. DNV no longer offers an anonymous PDF download, and DNV’s own copy is the official version.

The companion documents DNV-RP-N202 Heave compensating systems and DNV-RP-N201 Lifting appliances used in subsea operations are part of DNV’s paid Explorer+ subscription. For how ST-0378 fits with DNV-ST-N001 and the marine-operation documents, see DNV standards for offshore lifting.