Fall Protection

A fall protection system is primarily designed to prevent a person from falling by stopping them before they reach the edge of the fall or the hazardous area. This includes a wide variety of individual structural components, ranging from railings to single anchor points on roofs or securing systems mounted on walls or overhead, where people can secure themselves.

For climbing poles, chimneys, or in high-bay warehouses, long ladders are equipped with a rail system or wire rope to protect people from falling, so-called climbing protection devices or mobile fall arrester devices on a fixed or mobile guide according to EN 353-1 and 353-2. In any case, a full body harness with a front sternal or rear dorsal fall arrest attachment point in accordance with the standard EN 361 must be worn as a minimum standard if an uncontrolled fall cannot be ruled out.

For tradespeople, there are sets for various applications, consisting of a full body harness according to EN 361 and a lanyard, which for steel and antenna construction can consist of a Y-band shock absorber according to EN 355 and a positioning rope according to EN 358, or for roof work, a rope with a mobile fall arrester according to EN 353-2, in which a shock absorber is integrated. A height safety device also provides very good protection, for example in work platforms, through the automatic retraction of the rope or band.

For fire brigades, device sets according to DIN 14800-17 are considered fall protection sets, consisting of a full body harness EN 361, various carabiners with automatic lock EN 362, sling belts of different lengths (80cm - 1.50m), a self-protection device, often as an adjustable positioning rope according to EN 358, and a 60m long dynamic rope EN 892 with 11mm diameter. Currently, there is a trend towards a knot-free device set, the advantage of which lies in the speed and lower susceptibility to errors.

All these individual components and sets must undergo an inspection at least once a year by a competent person in the commercial-technical field.