steel erection fall protection and sAfety
STANDARDS YOU NEED TO KNOW
The OSHA standard for fall protection in the steel erection industry is 15’. OSHA 29 CFR, Subpart R 1926.760 requires anyone working more than 15’ above a lower level to be protected from fall hazards by guardrail systems, fall restraint systems, safety net systems, positioning device systems, personal fall arrest systems, or mobile fall protection.
FIND WHAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR CREW
TRUSTWORTHY BEAM CLAMPS
Expertly designed beam clamps are ideal for steel erectors because they attach to I or H beams, create anchors for structural steel or beams and adjust to fit a range of sizes. Beam clamps allow users to achieve 100% tie off using dual self-retracting lifelines or dual lanyards. Another fast and secure way attach to an I Beam, or other structure, is to use a cross arm strap, or beam wrap. These anchors are reusable and often include a heavy-duty wear pad to protect the structural webbing from abrasion and reinforced stitching. The straps wrap around the beam and use two D-Rings of different sizes to allow for easy-thru and make attaching the safety harness system fast, effective, and easy.
CREATING ANCHOR POINTS ON STEEL BEAMS
Beam Stanchions are extremely useful and versatile tools to add to your safety fall protection kit. They are easy-to-install fall protection anchor points that fit a variety of beam sizes. Beam stanchions help create anchor points on steel I beams. They can be clamped onto the beam as a single unit or in many cases, the stanchions are used in pairs to clamp into multiple beams to create a horizontal lifeline. This allows for multiple users to tie off and move about more freely while maintaining safety and fall protection.
HANDS-FREE POSITIONING
We all understand that it’s difficult to work at heights, especially when you have welding materials, large flying metal materials, and other employees around you, so hands-free positioning is a helpful asset. A Rebar chain assembly is a work positioning tool that allows workers to perform hands-free bodily adjustments while maintaining elevation and staying connected to a fall arrest device. The worker using the assembly product can attach the swivel snap hooks to the side D-Rings on their body harness, attach the swivel rebar hook to the anchor, lean away from the wall, and begin working with a wider range of movement.
FOOT-LEVEL TIE-OFF AND SHARP EDGES
Working with steel, you are building up as you go and overhead anchorage is hard to find. If you must tie-off at foot level, steel presents an opportunity for injury by encountering a sharp edge. A leading edge self-retracting lifeline is a personal fall arrest system with a quick-action braking system specifically designed for foot-level tie-off on leading edges when overhead anchorage is unavailable. Other retractable lifelines and lanyards are not rated to encounter a sharp edge like steel and will likely damage or snap altogether when employed to arrest a fall.
CREATING A HORIZONTAL LIFELINE
To create a horizontal lifeline for up to 4 people, you will need a 100 feet synthetic rope, a highly corrosion-resistant tensioner, four steel O-Rings, two self-locking carabiners, a tensioning wrench, two cross-arm straps, and a high-strength, double-braided high-visibility rope.
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With these horizontal lifeline essentials and equipment made from steel, weight is not an issue. You can create a safe tie-off point for four workers with a minimum breaking strength of 5,620 pounds to provide your workers with high-quality fall protection tools and resources that are portable and durable.
AN OFTEN OVERLOKED FALL PROTECTION NEED: UNLOADING
Before the steel can go up, it needs to be delivered to the job site and unloaded for use. In most of these instances, the transport trucks, tankers, or trailers are packed high, and a worker needs to get up on the load to manage the unloading process. The OSHA standard for the steel erection industry requires fall protection to be worn and used when workers are elevated at least 4ft above the lower surface when loading and unloading.
At Malta Dynamics, you can trust our equipment because we trust your opinion. We have crews of men and women working in the field who test all of our gear and give us feedback on how to perfect the design before we ever put products on the market. Our engineers make sure that the equipment is in compliance with OSHA and ANSI, and our Malta Dynamics Field Crew helps us make sure that the people who use our material find it durable with maximum comfort to wear all day. We are truly proud to be Field Tested and Field Approved.Â
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