Rigging services are how heavy equipment gets lifted, moved, and set into position on an industrial site without hurting people or damaging the load. On a compressor station, a power plant, or a data center build, most major components arrive too large to place by hand. The rigging plan is often the difference between a lift that takes an afternoon and one that stops the whole schedule.
This guide explains what industrial rigging services cover, the safety rules that govern every lift, and what to look for when you hire a rigging crew. The short version: certification, a written lift plan, and riggers who share a payroll with your crane operators and millwrights.
Key Takeaways
- Rigging services cover attaching, lifting, positioning, and setting heavy equipment and structural steel to a documented lift plan.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024, and 357 of those deaths came from propelled, falling, or suspended objects, the hazard rigging exists to control.
- OSHA requires certified crane operators (29 CFR 1926.1427) and inspection of rigging gear before every shift (29 CFR 1926.251).
- Self-performed rigging keeps the lift on your schedule instead of a subcontractor’s booking window.
- The strongest rigging partners also self-perform welding, fabrication, and millwright work, so one crew stands behind both the lift and the equipment.
What rigging services cover on an industrial site
Rigging services exist to control one specific hazard: a heavy load that is off the ground and under tension. In 2024, 357 US workers were killed by propelled, falling, or suspended objects, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. A rigging crew’s entire job is to keep the load in the air predictable, from the moment it leaves the truck to the moment it lands on its foundation.
On an industrial project, that scope is broad. Riggers attach loads with slings, shackles, and spreader bars, select and position the crane, and plan the lift so the load path avoids people and live equipment. They set process equipment such as compressors, pumps, and modular skids. They handle structural steel erection, and they move machinery into and out of tight plant spaces where a crane cannot reach. Much of this work overlaps with millwright services, because the same components that get lifted also have to be aligned and secured once they land.
The common thread is planning. A good rigging service does not improvise the lift. It calculates the load weight, the center of gravity, the sling angles, and the crane capacity at the working radius before anyone connects a hook.
Why rigging safety decides the risk on a live site
Crane and rigging work carries a level of risk that most other trades do not. From 2011 to 2017, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 297 crane-related deaths, an average of 42 per year, the most recent period for which BLS breaks out cranes as a separate category. Those numbers are not spread evenly across the workforce. They land on lifts that were planned poorly, rigged with the wrong gear, or run by an operator who was not qualified for the machine.
That is why rigging safety is not a paperwork exercise. A dropped load on a live compressor station does not just injure the crew on the ground. It can rupture piping, release product, and idle a facility that was supposed to be back in service that week. The cost of getting a lift wrong is measured in lives first and in schedule second, and the two are connected: crews under schedule pressure are the ones most tempted to skip a step.
What certified riggers and crane operators actually do
Certification is the baseline, not a bonus. Under OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1427, an employer must ensure every operator of a crane covered by the Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard is trained, certified, and evaluated before running the equipment. Certification can come through an accredited testing organization, an audited employer program, a qualifying state license, or US military qualification.
Riggers and signal persons carry their own responsibilities. The rigger selects and inspects the gear, calculates the load, and rigs it so it stays balanced through the lift. The signal person directs the crane when the operator cannot see the load. Getting these roles right is a team problem, which is why serious contractors keep the whole team on staff. LMC runs its lifts with NCCCO trained crane operators and riggers who work alongside the welders, fabricators, and millwrights on the same project, rather than a rigging crew hired in for a single day. Its rigging practice follows the ASME B30 standards, and crane operator certification is verifiable through NCCCO.
How rigging gear gets inspected before every lift
Every lift starts with an inspection, by law. OSHA 29 CFR 1926.251 requires that rigging equipment for material handling be inspected before use on each shift, and that defective gear be removed from service immediately. Alloy steel chain slings carry an additional requirement: a thorough periodic inspection at intervals no greater than once every 12 months.
In practice, that means a rigger checks slings for cuts, broken wires, heat damage, and stretched links at the start of the shift, verifies the capacity tags are legible, and confirms the hardware matches the load chart for the planned lift. Gear that fails inspection comes out of the rotation. This is the least glamorous part of rigging services and the part that prevents the most incidents. A sling that is inspected and rated for the job does not fail in the air.
Rigging is a scheduling problem before it is a lifting problem
Rigging sits at the point in a project where delays are most expensive. Everything downstream waits on the load landing: alignment, piping tie-ins, electrical terminations, commissioning. A lift that slips by a week idles every trade queued behind it. A contractor who owns the iron does not wait in line for it. LMC runs over 300 pieces of owned equipment, including rough terrain and crawler cranes, excavators and dozers, industrial telehandlers, and loaders and haul trucks. When the crane sits on the company yard in Dansville rather than on a rental branch calendar, the lift date moves when the project moves.
This is where self-performed rigging changes the math. When the rigging crew is booked as a subcontractor, the lift is tied to that crew’s window. If the window slips because concrete cured late or steel arrived a week behind, the rigging crew is already on another job, and commissioning waits. When riggers work for the same company running the mechanical scope, the lift moves with the rest of the sequence. LMC’s own crews carry that scope rather than brokering it out, so the schedule stays in the hands of the people responsible for the outcome.
How rigging fits mechanical, millwright, and structural steel scopes
Rigging is rarely a standalone service. LMC runs it as part of a workforce of more than 350 tradespeople, including NCCCO trained crane operators and riggers, API 1104, ASME, AISC, and AWS certified welders and fabricators, and in-house millwrights. That mix matters because setting a large compressor or a modular skid is a rigging problem before it becomes an alignment problem, and the same crew often carries the work from the lift through the final alignment.
The connections run through the whole project. Pipe spool fabrication produces assemblies that have to be rigged into place inside a congested rack. Power generation and data center builds depend on setting heavy modular units to tight tolerances. All of it flows through a 700,000 square foot fabrication facility in Dansville, New York, where components are built and staged before they ever reach the field. When one contractor fabricates, rigs, sets, and aligns the equipment, there is no gap between trades for a problem to hide in.
What the shop can pick up
Overhead crane hooks in the Dansville shop
Rigging starts before the load ever leaves the building. These are the hook capacities available over LMC’s fabrication floor, and they set how large an assembly can be built, turned and shipped in one piece.
10 ton hook
10 t
15 ton hook
15 t
35 ton hook
35 t
50 ton hook
50 t
150 ton hook
150 t
Frequently Asked Questions
What are rigging services in industrial construction?
Rigging services are the planning and controlled movement of heavy loads: attaching, lifting, positioning, and setting equipment and structural components with cranes, slings, and related hardware. On an industrial project that covers everything from setting a compressor or a modular skid to erecting structural steel, all executed to a documented lift plan.
Do crane operators and riggers need to be certified?
Yes. Under OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1427, employers must ensure crane operators are certified for the equipment they run, and OSHA requires employers to evaluate and document rigger and signal-person competency on assembly, disassembly, and lifting tasks. Independent certification through NCCCO is the common way contractors verify this.
What is the difference between rigging and millwright services?
Rigging moves and sets the equipment; millwright work aligns and secures it once it lands. The two are sequential. Setting a large compressor or skid is a rigging problem before it becomes an alignment problem, so the crew that lifts the machine and the crew that levels and aligns it need to be working from the same plan.
Why hire an industrial contractor that self-performs rigging?
Self-performed rigging keeps the lift on your schedule instead of a subcontractor’s booking window. When riggers, crane operators, and millwrights share a payroll, the lift moves with the rest of the mechanical sequence, and commissioning does not wait on an outside crew that has moved to another job.
What certifications should an industrial rigging contractor hold?
Look for NCCCO or equivalently certified crane operators and riggers, documented signal-person qualification, and a written lift-planning process. A contractor with in-house welding, fabrication, and millwright certifications such as API 1104, ASME, AISC, and AWS can also stand behind the structures and equipment being lifted, not just the lift itself.
Planning a lift on a compressor station, power plant, or data center build? Contact LMC Industrial Contractors to talk through the rigging plan with a crew that fabricates, lifts, sets, and aligns the equipment under one roof.
