Recently published a paper on adequacy of energy absorbers in Safety Science. Let me know if you are interested in research of fall protection equipment. Email me at y.goh”at”curtin.edu.au (replace the “at” with @).
Archive for the ‘Safety Technology/Hazard’ Category
Adequacy of personal fall arrest energy absorbers
Monday, March 29th, 2010Fall arrest shock or impact force
Thursday, March 26th, 2009A lot of people are confused on how to calculate fall arrest shock force… here’s a simple equation to determine the average impact or shock force during fall arrest:
Average impact force, F = mg(h + x) / x
m = mass
g = gravity
h = free fall distance (from initial position to just before deployment of energy absorber or other energy absorbing component)
x = stretch or extension of the fall arrest system during fall arrest
Note that there are lots of assumptions in this equation. The Canadian standards has good information on design of fall arrest systems.
Sydney Scaffold Collapse
Monday, March 16th, 2009Saw a post on Kevin Jone’s SafetAtWork blog (see my blog roll) on an accident involving a scaffold collapse.
The accident is reported in this website. Note that there had been a scaffold incident just weeks before this accident.
The victim did not put on his harness, the other painter that did survived. Based on the report, it seems like a scaffold connection failed… fall arrest system harnesses is a last line of the defence that should never be neglected.
Apparrently the painter that survived was hanging on the harness for about 45 minutes, luckily he was able to stand on a window ledge, if not suspension trauma could have set in.
Solid Fall Protection…
Thursday, January 15th, 2009The picture in this article tells a lot about the safety norms in small construction sites in Australia…
Semi-automatic quick hitches
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008UK HSE actually managed to stop the supply of semi-automatic quick hitches to UK. See extract from HSE’s email bulletin below. See my earlier post and HSE’s website (below) for additional information.
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1. ++ CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY TAKES ACTION ON SEMI-AUTOMATIC QUICK HITCHES ++
HSE has confirmed that European manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to cease supply of semi-automatic quick hitches into the UK. The agreement comes after discussions between HSE and industry following four fatal incidents in the twelve month period between December 2006 and November 2007. The agreement is effective as of 1 October 2008.
* The agreement will mean that in the future when buying a quick hitch only manual or automatic quick hitches will be available.
* This does not mean that all semi automatic hitches will be illegal as of 1 October 2008. When used in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions semi automatic quick hitches can still be used safely.
Further information – http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safehitch.htm?ebul=cons/oct08&cr=02