RESEARCH REPORT 266 - Health and Safety Executive

1 HSE Health & Safety Executive A review of criteria concerning design, selection,installation, use, maintenance and training aspects of temporarily-installed horizontal lifelines Prepared by Safety Squared for the Health and Safety Executive 2004 RESEARCH REPORT 266 HSE Health & Safety Executive A review of criteria concerning design, selection,installation, use, maintenance and training aspects of temporarily-installed horizontal lifelines D Riches BSc (Hons) Safety Squared 11 Cordell Close St Ives Cambridgeshire PE27 6UL A temporarily-installed horizontal lifeline (HLL) is a line that is stretched between two extremes of travel in a workplace, to provide a continuous anchor for the attachment of fall-arrest equipment, providing protection against falling from a height over a convenient span.

2 If a worker falls, they will be arrested in a similar manner to the way in which an aircraft catches the arrester wire when landing onboard an aircraft carrier, the lifeline deflects into to a V shape whilst absorbing the energy. To look at, temporary-installed HLLs are very simple. But in terms of the fall-arresting process, they are very complex. Consequently, the design and installation of temporary-installed HLLs is not just a matter of stringing up some randomly chosen rope in an improvised manner, and in the process relying on a good degree of guesswork. HLLs are engineered systems and require engineering disciplines and approaches in order to ensure that they will perform as intended. There is a general lack of understanding of the criteria involved in the design, installation and control of fall-arresting systems (FAS) based on temporary-installed HLL, particularly by those who have to select and install these systems at the workplace.

3 This applies to organisations who either choose proprietary systems from fall-arrest manufacturers or those who take it on themselves to fabricate their own designs. This RESEARCH gathers together and reviews technical information in order to provide a greater understanding into how these FAS are designed, how they work, and how they are controlled. This includes: key factors regarding selection, installation, use and maintenance; recommendations for those organisations that fabricate and install their own designs; recommendations for training; and information that could be put into HSE guidance. This REPORT and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

4 Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy. HSE BOOKS Crown copyright 2004 First published 2004 ISBN 0 7176 2892 2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to: Licensing Division, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ or by e-mail to ii Acknowledgements The author acknowledges with gratitude the assistance from the following in the production of this review: Document Supply Centre, RESEARCH Services and Worldwide Searches Department of The British Library for document search and provision; The National Engineering Laboratory for permission to review and document various archived film material for RESEARCH purposes; The Wright Image Company for the production of DVD copies of the above material.

5 Paul Jones of the HSE for retrieving accident data from the HSE s FOD database. And in addition, the author acknowledges with thanks the assistance from the following manufacturers for the supply of information: Dunn and Cowe Ltd Latchways plc Proteq Ltd Sala Group Ltd Spanset Ltd Tractel Ltd Uniline Safety Systems Ltd iii iv CONTENTS Executive .. ix 1. INTRODUCTION .. 1 PURPOSE .. 1 BACKGROUND .. 1 RESEARCH METHOD .. 4 Literature search and review .. 4 Survey of UK manufacturers and suppliers .. 5 HSE FOD Database .. 5 Review of archived film material.

6 6 DEFINITIONS .. 6 Permanently-installed HLL .. 6 Temporarily-installed HLL .. 6 Single-span HLL .. 6 Multi-span HLL .. 6 .. 6 .. 6 Travelling device .. 6 Interconnecting fall-arrest equipment .. 6 Energy-absorbing lanyard .. 6 In-line energy absorber .. 7 fall .. 7 V deflection.

7 7 Deflection angle .. 7 ratio .. 7 System Safety factor .. 7 Wire/rope construction .. 8 2. FALL ARRESTING SYSTEMS BASED ON TEMPORARILY-INSTALLED HORIZONTAL LIFELINES .. 11 BASIC FAS .. 11 FAS BASED ON TEMPORARILY-INSTALLED HLL .. 13 v CONTENTS 3. LITERATURE REVIEW .. 21 AMERICAN .. 21 FRENCH RESEARCH .. 22 Static analysis .. 22 Static testing to destruction .. 23 CANADIAN RESEARCH .

8 24 Ontario Hydro .. 24 Canadian steel erection industry .. 29 Retractable .. 31 AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH .. 32 Initial RESEARCH .. 32 Further RESEARCH .. 34 Points worth noting from further testing .. 37 Long single-span systems with multiple workers .. 41 UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH .. 44 Drop-tests involving multiple-dummy releases .. 44 Drop-tests: simultaneous and staggered double-dummy releases .. 46 Static tests to destruction .. 48 RESEARCH and development.

9 50 Design and performance details .. 55 Single-spans versus multi-span HLLs .. 56 Free space requirement .. 58 GERMAN RESEARCH .. 60 OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS .. 62 United Kingdom Legislation .. 62 American Legislation .. 65 Official guidance .. 67 British standards .. 70 British standard BS EN 365 .. 70 British standard BS EN 795 .. 73 British standard BS 7883 .. 74 American national standard ANSI .. 75 Canadian national standards .. 76 Australian / New Zealand standard AS/NZS.

10 77 ACCIDENT DATA .. 78 vi CONTENTS 4. SURVEY OF UK MANUFACTURERS AND SUPPLIERS .. 79 GENERAL .. 80 INEXPERT, UNPROFESSIONAL OR UNTRAINED ORGANISATIONS .. 81 INSTALLATION AND DESIGN APPROACH .. 82 Computer analysis .. 82 Graphical and tabular approaches .. 84 Modelling multiple-fall scenarios .. 84 Controlling design changes .. 85 SERVICING AND ANNUAL EXAMINATION .. 85 PRODUCT DESIGN .. 86 Terminations .. 86 INSTALLATION AND USE .. 87 Attaching to structure .. 87 Multiple use situations .. 88 Tensioning.