This article explores when are soft landing systems used. Soft landing systems, also known as fall arrest mats, crash bags offer protection from falls on construction sites and other places where people need to work at height.
What is a soft landing system?
An SLS, or Soft-Landing System, is sometimes referred to as fall arrest mats or bags. These bags are typically air-filled or soft-filled mats designed to reduce the risk of injury for workers falling from height. These fall arrest systems are effective in reducing injuries for falls from distances up to 2.5 meters.
Falls from height are extremely dangerous and cause serious injuries if they land wrong or on objects on the floor. A solution such as a fall arrest system is an important part of worker safety protection against impacts.
The use of SLS, or fall arrest mats, became widespread in the industry in the early 2000s. These soft-landing systems are either suspended beneath the working area or laid on the ground, depending on the height of the workers.
However, some Health and Safety Executive inspectors have raised concerns about the effectiveness of fall arrest mats. Their observations indicated that duty holders were implementing these systems as the primary method for preventing injuries when working at height, which may not always be the most effective approach.
The inspectors' report reviews the evidence regarding the risk of personal injury a worker might face when using a properly installed and maintained soft-landing system.
This review includes evidence from incident reports made for the HSE and other sources. Some of this evidence indicates that if a person falls within the specified range on the soft-landing system, the force and deceleration from the impact are within tolerable levels for a human.
It also states that injuries associated with the impact after falling are minimal as long as the SLS thickness is sufficient to avoid bottoming out and as long as the dissipation prevents any bouncing.
However, there is some evidence that if a worker was to land on the edge of this SLS unit, hit another object that has landed on this unit or hit something in the same direction. The worker could obtain some damage from the impact.
Features of the soft landing system
The soft-landing system is used to help reduce any injuries a worker could sustain from working at a little height. Some features could be useful for workers.
These features include:
The SLS is highly flexible, handling of the units is easy, and the unit is lightweight.
Soft-landing systems are manufactured from materials that are not just environmentally recyclable but also water-resistant.
Each Soft-landing system unit can be directly linked to another unit using the provided interlocking fasteners.
Once the SLS units have been fastened together, a person can't fall between the two units.
The fall arrest bags are 2500mm in length and 644mm in diameter.
When would you use fall bags?
Depending on the circumstances behind the fall and its height, it can either mean serious injuries to the person or even death threatening injuries if not treated correctly. A building site is a dangerous place to be in without a doubt, and so is a house-building site.
When workers are working on scaffolding, they are still at risk of falling off and hitting a building site where tools, rubble and more are lying around. To allow workers to be working at height in a safe condition, a fall arrest system is required to reduce injuries from falling.
The SLS or Soft-landing system is designed to absorb the impact taken from the fall without leaving the workers with severe injuries.
If you are working on a construction project in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent or London, you will be considring the safety requirements of your workers. Follow the links below for construction site safety nets, crash bags hire and edge protection hire.
Construction Site Safety Nets Fall Arrest Bags For Hire Edge Protection Hire