All About Painting: Ladder and Fall Protection

Vancouver's Best Painters: Painters painting in Vancouver
Painting Vancouver With Paint is what Vancouver's Best Painters painters

• Trade Terms
• Introduction
• Ladders
• Scaffolds
• Aerial Lifts
• Fall Protection Equipment
• Rescue After Fall
• Testing Fall Protection System and Equipment
• Summary

Vancouver's Best Painters: Ladder and Fall Protection

TRADE TERMS

Vancouver's Best Painters: Painters painting in Vancouver

Aerial lifts: Portable, heavy-duty equipment used to raise or lower workers to and from ar elevated job site.

Arresting force: The force needed to stop a person from falling. The greater the free fall distance, the greater the force needed to stop or arrest the fall.

Deceleration device: A device, such as a shock-absorbing lanyard or self-retracting lifeline, that brings a falling person to a stop without injury.

Deceleration distance: The distance it takes before a person comes to a stop. The required deceleration distance for a fall arrest system is a maximum of 31/2 feet (1.07 meters).

Duty rating: American National Standards Institute (ANSI) rating assigned to ladders. It indicates the amount of use the ladder is designed to handle (industrial, commercial, or household) and the maximum working load limit (weight capacity) of the ladder. The working load limit is the maximum combined weight of the user, tools, and any materials bearing down on the rungs of a ladder.

Free fall distance: The vertical distance a worker moves during a fall before a fall protection deceleration device activates.

Ladder: A wood, metal, or fiberglass framework consisting of two parallel sidepieces (rails) connected by rungs on which a person steps when climbing up or down. Ladders may either be of a fixed-length that are permanently attached to a building or structure or portable. Portable ladders have either fixed or adjustable length, and are either self-supporting or not self-supporting.

Personal fall arrest systems: Safety systems that activate and catch workers after they have fallen.

Personal positioning systems: Safety systems that allow workers to hold themselves in place, keeping their hands free to accomplish a task. Whenever the worker leans back, the system is activated.

Scaffold: A temporary built-up framework or suspended platform or work area designed to support workers, materials, and equipment at elevated or otherwise inaccessible job sites.

Single-point suspension scaffold: A manually- or power-operated platform designed for light-duty use supported by one cable or rope from an overhead support. It allows the raising and lowering of the platform to the working position.

Two-point suspension scaffold: A manually- or power-operated platform which is supported by hangers at two points suspended from overhead supports in a way that allows it to be raised or lowered to the working position.