Fixed Ladder and Harness Systems: How to Choose the Best Fall Protection Equipment for Worker Safety

The OSHA final rule on fixed ladders, issued in 2017 as part of its General Industry Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection Standards, “phases in a requirement for employers to have ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems for fixed ladders that extend more than 24 feet, and phases out the use of cages or wells for fall protection.”

Those changes, in part, led 3M to develop its ladder safety products, which it does both through R&D in 3M labs and also by listening to its customers every day, Thompson says. “One of the things we heard about our Lad-Saf system, even going back to the legacy versions, is that it could be complicated and time-consuming to install.”

The system is designed for use on varying ladders and for different heights, which affects the total install time. Even so, when 3M looked at the older version of the system, “it came down to reducing the complexity and reducing the parts,” Thompson says.

Engineers came up with a version with far fewer components, up to 72 percent fewer in fact. “That means there aren’t as many tools used to install it, and there isn’t as much room for error in the installation,” he explains. “With fewer loose parts, installation time can be greatly reduced.”
 

Basically, workers now start with a ladder kit that is half-finished. The goal was to advance safety, but also to improve productivity by saving time, Thompson says. 

The engineering team also thought about the changes in terms of creating an adaptable system, he says, for “environments where the product is going to be used for many, many years.”

Find specs for off-the-shelf and custom Lad-Saf flexible-cable, vertical safety systems here. 

Envisioning a Harness for Multiple Users

“Our Delta harness is a product where we have really focused on continually innovating and making it easier to use,” Thompson says.

It has a couple of features that make it user-friendly, he says. The first is the no-tangle design. No matter how or where a facility stores its harnesses, or how many workers share a harness, “that no-tangle design allows a user to pick this harness up and easily be able to know how to put it on,” he says.

The Delta harness goes on like a jacket, which helps take any type of tangling out of the process. “It just makes it easier to understand how to don the harness,” Thompson says, which can be critical if a user, even when properly trained and certified to use a harness, only uses one sporadically.

Second, the Delta has revolving torso adjusters, which 3M also has on some of its other harnesses. These make it easy to adjust and hold the proper fit, he says.

The other aspect of the harness that makes it a good choice for a wide range of industrial uses is its durability.

These three design elements are critical in ensuring that someone will be wearing a safety harness, Thompson says. “The safety manager knows they have a product that their workers are likely to use and to put on properly.”
 

A Delta harness can be adjusted for multiple people to wear at different sizes because of its universal sizing.

For instance, what happens without universal sizing if a worker comes to get a harness from the tool crib and only small harnesses are available? “If it’s not fitted correctly, there can be a safety issue,” Thompson says. “The universal-size harnesses can fit a wide range of users but still be adjusted appropriately so those users have a safe fit while they’re working.”

That can be a critical factor in a manufacturing environment. These facilities are not necessarily akin to a construction site, where some workers might wear a harness every day, all day. 

“That’s why the Delta harness is popular in the manufacturing segment,” Thompson says. A company doesn’t have to invest in protective gear that might sit unused. “In a manufacturing and industrial environment, you can have easy adjustments, you can fit multiple sizes.” 

The Delta also has a high capacity, up to 420 pounds, allowing for a broad range of users that the harness can accommodate.

“One of the things 3M has focused on since the very beginning of the company is that if the product is not easy to use, the customer is not going to use it,” Thompson says. “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you build a product from a robustness standpoint if it’s not going to work easily when a customer needs it to work.”

Do your workers share fall protection equipment? Share best practices you have learned that work well in your facility.