When you are working on a roof and using a personal fall arrest system, you have faith that it will work if you fall (right?). You have faith that the anchorage will hold; that the connection devices won’t fail, and that the harness and lanyard won’t break under the stress of quick tensioning. To place that much faith in your equipment you truly need to inspect it every day. If you are not doing this every day; or if you are not inspecting it thoroughly, the faith you are placing your equipment may not be justified.
In this Safety Talk we are going to discuss how to inspect your harness. In future Safety Talks we will discuss how to inspect other parts of a personal fall arrest system. If you can, grab your harness right now so that you can inspect it as we discuss how to do that properly.
Let’s start with the webbing. Start at one end and hold the body side of the belt toward you, grasping the belt with your hands six to eight inches apart. Bend the belt in an inverted “U” (bottom of the U facing up). Look for frayed edges, broken fibers, pulled stitches, cuts or chemical damage. Inspect the full length of the belt.
Then check D-rings and D-ring metal wear pads for distortion, cracks, breaks, and rough or sharp edges. The D-ring bar should be at a 90 degree angle with the long axis of the belt and should pivot freely.
Next examine the rivets. The rivets should be tight. You should not be able to remove them with your fingers. Rivets should be flat against the material. It is important to know that bent rivets will fail under stress!
Next, examine the tongue buckle. The buckle tongues should be free of distortion in shape and motion. They should overlap the buckle frame and move freely back and forth in their socket. Rollers should turn freely on the frame. Check for distortion or sharp edges.
Lastly, inspect the friction buckle for distortion. The outer bar or center bars must be straight. Pay special attention to corners and attachment points of the center bar.
DISCUSSION NOTES:
Have you been inspecting your harness as thoroughly as you should?
Have you been inspecting it as often as you should (every day)?
What defects have you found while inspecting a harness (either recently or in past years)?
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