Most people use safety harness with anchor points for protecting them from falls. It is mostly used in the construction industry and also in other sites where safety is very important. Fall protection systems must be used for short term projects like maintenance, small construction work, and evacuation work. Workers installing solar panels, painters and chimney sweep should not work in sloping roofs with more than 2.5 meters without fall protection.
Maintenance workers do not wear fall protection because they consider it as inconvenient and difficult. The main reason for this problem is the absence of anchor points. The three important elements of the personal fall protection are the roof safety anchor points, connecting device and body support. In most cases, the harness is attached to the anchor point using a lanyard. Most of us think that the anchor point must be above the work point but this is not true. If you are working on the slope area you can set throwing a line over the roof surface.
This method allows the user to have an anchor point on another side of the roof slope. There are three common methods used for creating an anchor point. All three types require a throwing line for the installation. For attaching roof safety anchor points and the rope you can use safety hooks. You must follow standard size equipment. The anchor point used for roof safety must hold 10 KN force and it should withstand the force for a minimum of 3 minutes.
If you are buying the safety equipment for personal use then it is difficult to measure the accuracy. So you can use the below-mentioned methods for creating an anchor point in the slope roof area. The three common methods are using a fixed anchor point, using a jamb anchor, and using a sling. Now let us discuss the three methods in detail.
l Using the sling method:
It is a polyamide strap. It is tied to a secured object located opposite to the work location. The safety hooks are connected to the sling. Some of the secured objects which can be used for tying the polyamide strap are strong and large size tree or you can also use the towing eye of the van. If you want to use inside building objects then you can use a spiral staircase. If possible ask someone to monitor this point to prevent accidents. You must tie the polyamide strap to the window frame, car wheel and a lamppost. Using the sling method is the best when compared with the other method.
l Using jamb anchor:
This method uses a window frame or door frame. Safety eye with safety hooks is used for attaching the rope. The jamb anchor used in this method must be wider.
l Using a fixed anchor point:
If using a temporary anchor point is not possible then you can drill a permanent anchor point. If needed you can remove the fixed anchor point. There are many types of fixed anchor point available. You can select one based on the surface like steel, brick, and concrete. It must be installed at the center point.
