Round slings manufactured to EN 1492-2 use a standard colour code for the outer protective cover, tied to the Working Load Limit for a straight vertical lift on a polyester sling: violet for 1 tonne, green for 2 tonnes, yellow for 3 tonnes, grey for 4 tonnes, red for 5 tonnes, brown for 6 tonnes, blue for 8 tonnes, and orange for 10 tonnes. This system lets riggers and store staff sort and select slings quickly by eye, which is genuinely useful when handling a rack of mixed-capacity slings on a busy site.
However, colour alone should never be the basis for deciding a sling is fit to lift a given load. The permanently fixed label is the authoritative source: it states the WLL for straight, choke and basket hitches, the manufacturer, and a traceability reference that ties the sling to its manufacturing and inspection history. Covers can fade, be repaired or replaced, or in rare cases be mismatched to the wrong core during manufacture or repair — the label is what should always be checked and cross-referenced against the intended lift, with colour used only as a first, quick sanity check.
Before use:
- Locate and read the label — if it is missing, detached, or too worn to read, the sling must be withdrawn from service regardless of what colour the cover appears to be
- Cross-check the colour against the label’s stated WLL as a sanity check, and treat any mismatch between colour and label as a reason to withdraw the sling and query it with a competent person
- Do not rely on memory of “that colour is normally X tonnes” from a different manufacturer’s convention — always confirm against the physical label present on the sling in hand
- Include label legibility as a specific item in routine and periodic inspection, since labels can become worn, soiled or torn well before the sling’s core is otherwise damaged
Norwegian sites operating under Arbeidstilsynet’s lifting equipment framework should treat label verification, not colour recognition, as the formal step in confirming a sling’s suitability for a planned lift.
Standarder: EN 1492-2 (Textile slings — Round slings made of man-made fibres for general purpose use)