Building a working-at-height system

A buyer's guide from Hanekom Innovations · Reading time about 7 minutes

Start above the equipment

Personal fall protection is the last line, not the first. Before specifying a harness, work through the hierarchy: can the work be done from the ground? Can a permanent guardrail or edge protection eliminate the fall? Can a mobile elevating work platform be used? Only when the fall risk cannot be designed out does personal fall arrest become the control.

This matters commercially too. A site that buys harnesses instead of fixing the edge protection has bought the more expensive answer.

The components and their standards

Fall arrest is not work positioning

These get confused constantly, and the confusion is dangerous.

• Fall arrest (EN 361 + EN 355) assumes a fall will happen and controls the consequences. Attachment is at the dorsal or sternal point.
• Work positioning (EN 358) supports a worker leaning back hands-free — on a pole, a tower leg, a structure. Attachment is at the lateral hip points. It is designed to hold, not to arrest.

A worker in a positioning system still needs an independent fall arrest system. Harnesses such as our PN 42(03) and MAGNA 2 combine both functions with separate attachment points precisely so this is possible.

Fall clearance: the calculation people skip

The most common failure in a fall arrest system is not equipment failure — it is a worker hitting the ground or a structure below while the system is working perfectly. You must calculate the required clearance below the anchor:

• Lanyard length — typically 1.5 m, 1.8 m or 2.0 m
• plus energy absorber deployment — the absorber tears and extends, commonly up to around 1.75 m
• plus the worker's height below the attachment point — roughly 1.5 m
• plus a safety margin — typically 1 m minimum

Add these up and a conventional 2 m energy-absorbing lanyard can easily need 6 metres or more of clear fall space below the anchor. That is more than the height of many working platforms.

Anchoring above the worker's attachment point shortens the free fall and reduces the required clearance. Anchoring below it increases free fall dramatically and may generate forces the system was never designed for.

When to use a self-retracting lifeline

Where clearance is limited, an EN 360 self-retracting lifeline is usually the answer. It keeps the line taut, so free fall is minimal and the arrest distance is short — often well under 2 metres in total. It also allows freedom of movement over a working area without the worker having to disconnect and reconnect.

Choosing between lengths is a question of the work zone, not preference:

• 2 m webbing block (MIC 02) — compact personal fall arrest, short-range movement, low weight at 1.17 kg. Good for confined platform work.
• 3.5 m and 6 m wire rope (TPGS 3.5, TPGS 06) — shorter-range plant access with fast line take-up.
• 10 m and 15 m wire rope (TPGS 10, TPGS 15) — larger work areas, conveyor runs, elevated access routes. Note the weight climbs to 4.28 kg and 5.65 kg — someone has to carry and rig it.

Several of these carry an ATEX rating, which matters if the equipment is used in a potentially explosive atmosphere.

Separately, dropped objects are a hazard the harness does nothing about. Tool lanyards rated for tools up to 10 kg (TL 01(N) single leg, TL 02(N) twin leg) belong in any specification for work over live plant or over people.

Suspension trauma and the rescue plan

A worker suspended in an arrested fall is not safe — they are in a new emergency. Motionless suspension restricts venous return from the legs, and unconsciousness can follow in a matter of minutes. Recovery is measured in minutes, not in however long it takes to get a vehicle to site.

If you do not have a rescue plan you can execute quickly, you do not have a fall protection system. The plan should be written before the work starts, and the equipment and trained people it depends on must be present while the work is happening.

Inspection and retirement

• Pre-use check, every time. Webbing for cuts, abrasion, chemical damage or heat glazing. Stitching for pulled threads. Hardware for distortion, cracks or corrosion. Absorber pack for any sign of deployment.
• Periodic inspection by a competent person, recorded, at the interval the manufacturer specifies.
• Any item involved in an arrested fall is retired immediately. No exceptions, no visual inspection reprieve. Cut it up so it cannot be returned to service.
• Respect the manufacturer's service life, which for textile components is usually stated from the date of first use.

This guide is general information, not a substitute for a site-specific risk assessment or competent-person training. Confirm connector compatibility, fall clearance and the rescue plan for your actual application before work begins.