DTWNews

Fall protection training is important because your employees likely have no formal training in the matter. They probably took some form of forklift safety training or rigging safety training for their last job, but the things learned there may have fallen by the wayside or may not apply to their current roles at your business. If anything, your fall protection would give them a refresher course on what to expect, what to avoid and what to do should a potential problem arise.

Fall protection is important too since you probably have to adhere to some industry standards. These fall protection standards are in place for a reason, and that reason is to protect everyone from falls and from harming other people or from destroying valuable merchandise.

The most common fall protection training involves those surrounding crane safety, lifting chains and lifting slings. Modern cranes are extremely powerful, much more so than the more primitive versions of cranes, and are either created with internal combustion engines or hydraulic systems and electric motors. Therefore, training on handling cranes is essential for anyone operating them. Web slings, a form of slings that lift, are the most popular type. They are both flexible and lightweight, which works well for various industries, and they have larger and wider bearing surfaces that protect a load well. However, formal training is required here since there is a very specific way to use this equipment.

Of course, the industry was not always so formal and so standardized. However, a lot of what was done before paved the way literally for today’s major operations. For example, fossilized fragments of 7 millimeter rope have been discovered that predate much of history. They were discovered in Lascaux caves and are estimated to be from at least 15,000 BC. This shows how long humans have been using rope to lift heavy loads. Today, wire rope is among the most common forms of rope used because it is made up of multiple wire strands that are twisted into a helix shape for maximum strength. And back in the 1800s, the gull chain was invented by a French inventor named Gull and is still in use today for hanging applications. It just shows how humans centuries ago and even thousands of years ago were using some of the same equipment and similar equipment that is used today. They did not have formal fall protection training, but you can.