Walter Heinrich is one of the few people who has contributed to the safety of industrial and construction cranes from every angle: as crane designer, standards developer and as safety inspector. His breadth of experience has given him an equally broad perspective on cranes and hoists.
Walter Heinrich started his 40-year long career as a special crane designer. He worked for more than 12 years at Sweden’s Hvilans Mek Verkstad, today owned by KCI Konecranes. In about 1970 he began work on his life’s work, crane inspection, first for this company, then for the state-owned Swedish Plant Inspectorate, then for the Det Norske Veritas organisation, and its new owner, the Finnish firm Inspecta. Although southern Sweden regional manager for many years, Heinrich says that he has worked in every country of Europe.
He has worked on the CEN standard committee on slewing jib cranes, and has developed technical standards on building deck cranes for the Swedish Navy, and repairing high-tensile steels of mobile cranes. Heinrich has also served as chairman of the testing and certification trade association CEOC, a three-year appointment.
