Although you are inspecting your fall protection equipment prior to each use as part of your regular safety checks, it is equally important that the equipment undergo a thorough equipment inspection by someone other than the user on an annual basis, to ensure that all the components are working and functioning as designed.
What exactly gets checked during an inspection?
These annual inspections are based on an in-depth review of each part of the equipment. A thorough inspection is an important part of an overall preventative care and equipment maintenance program to ensure equipment is safe for use and that all components are working properly.
Here’s just some of the components that our qualified equipment inspectors will be looking at when we complete your annual inspection.
Hardware: Including snap hooks, carabiners, adjusters, lanyard keepers, thimbles, and d-rings. Inspectors will be looking for any sign of damage, distortion, sharp edges, burrs, cracks, corrosion, and to ensure that it functions as intended (i.e. buckles lock, gates open and close freely, adjusters can be positioned, etc.)
Webbing: Our inspectors will meticulously look over all the webbing components of the equipment, visually and by feel, looking for any cuts, burns, tears, abrasion, frays, soiling, or discolouration, which may indicate that the webbing has been compromised in some way that could cause it to fail if subjected to the forces of a fall.
Stitching: Anything that has stitches, such as sewn components of a harness, sewn terminations on lanyards, or sewn eyes on the end of a rope with a thimble, will be inspected for pulled, popped, or cut stitching.
Wire Rope: As some lanyards and Type 1 SRL’s (Under 10′) may utilize wire rope instead of webbing, the cable will be inspected thoroughly for broken wires, any signs of corrosion, kinks, or separation of strands of the wires.
Energy Absorbing Components: When inspecting lanyards, which will include some form of energy absorber, the inspectors are looking for any sign of elongation, tears, or excessive soiling, including any visible sign of exposed impact indicators which are designed to become visible once the equipment is subjected to a force and activates the energy absorber.
Labels: While it may not seem like an integral part of the overall function of a piece of fall protection equipment, the label is arguably one of the most important components of any piece of equipment, as it is designed to inform the user as to the certification standard, the date it was manufactured, the rating of any energy absorbing components, and often times any specific safety warnings related to the intended use of it.
For many of our clients, the convenience and peace of mind to just simply drop off their equipment, and have the inspections done, makes the most sense, but for others who may have a large inventory of equipment, or need the flexibility of being able to inspect a couple pieces at a time, it might make sense to train someone in house to complete them.
If you’d like to learn more about the inspection process, or take the next step toward conducting your own annual inspections, we offer a 1-Day Fall Protection Equipment Inspection course that will help provide the necessary foundation of knowledge to conduct internal equipment inspections,
Our next available offering will be on June 19th, 2020 and has only 3 seats still available. Check out our course outline below:
Fall Protection Equipment Inspection
This one-day program is for individuals who may be responsible for establishing and maintaining fall protection equipment inventory.
The course instructs participants on how to conduct formal equipment inspections on personal fall arrest system components. The course will consist of a combination of practical and theoretical learning approaches.
Equipment inspection will comprise a major component of the course’s content, but other aspects of equipment care will be taught to ensure that students can properly implement and manage an equipment program.
Students will be provided a course manual for use during the course, and for future reference. Upon successful completion, certification is granted for a three-year period.
Topics Covered Include:
- Governing Legislation
- Standards Bodies
- Manufacturer’s Requirements
- Equipment markings & tracking systems
- Proper record-keeping
- Maintenance & storage principles
- Specific equipment inspection processes
- Hands-on exercises
To register for this training please email info@trr.ca or give us a call at 709.576.7233 and we’d be happy to have you join us.