Fall arrest and fall restraint are two major terms that are used in lifting industry when working at height, but they both fall under the fall protection. Fall restraint is a technique to safeguard a competent person with an anchorage by using a safety lanyard which is short enough to prevent the centre of gravity of a person from reaching the fall hazard.
The fall arrest, at other side, is an event of stopping a freefall and the collection of all such components configured together for arresting a freefall is known as a fall arrest system. The main difference between both these terms is an ‘arrest’ that occurs when a person freefalls through space. Here, the system stops an operator’s fall (already occurred) to prevent impact at a low level.
On the other side, a fall restraint system makes a worker restrained from reaching to a fall danger. Here, the restraint is affixed with a lanyard of static length and body harness (or belt). Lanyard can be treated as a leash to halt the worker from reaching the leading edge. Both safety harness and lanyard are used together as a complete set to give ultimate protection at great height locations.
A fall restraint system is more preferred for preventing the falls at a workplace, specially for the edge rooftop applications. In this system, the operators are required to tie-off to anchorages at their feet to reduce any aspect of the fall protection and brings prompt rescue in case a fall occurs.
Unlike, fall arrest systems do not provide flexibility of movement in any work environment. In some instances, it becomes tough to continuously adjust a lanyard. In the meantime, a self retracting lifeline makes proper use of overhead to allow a convenient work access.
The fresh self-retracting lifelines available in the lifting industry contain leg features to give 100% tie-off and are lightweight and portable in design.
In a Nutshell
When selecting a correct fall protection system, a competent person must carefully notice all the fall hazards and pick a relevant safety harness and lanyard. It is necessary to give a great level of security at tough height locations and fall protection devices prevent risk of injury while working at these demanding places.
Author Bio
This blog post has been penned down by an expert blogger and trained engineer at Bishop Lifting Services. Author showers his extensive writing skills related to an array of the safety devices, like safety harness and lanyard.
