Horizontal Safety Lines, Safety Anchors and Product Standards

Will Horizontal Safety Lines & Safety Anchors Be Left Without A Product Standard?

Since 1996 manufacturers of personal fall protection systems such as horizontal safety lines and safety anchors have been testing their products to the European standard EN 795

Written by James Gooder, Fall Protection - Business Unit Manager in SFS Group Fastening Technology Ltd.

Although this standard has had its detractors in some quarters, being product based without true consideration or requirement for application, it did set a benchmark for fall protection manufacturers.

The glaring lack of consideration for application left responsible and forward thinking manufacturers to set up there own test facility, working with roofing OEM's to create a database of test results associated to the application, flat roof, built-up on site, etc.

In 2012 the standard saw a number of significant technical changes, such as the introduction of foreseeable misuse, requiring all anchor devices to be tested for fall arrest even if there intended use was for restraint.

Another change saw the standard specifically focus on the performance and associated test methods for single-user anchor devices, but crucially focusing on anchor devices which are intended to be removable from the structure. The standard did leave scope under Type A and Type C for permanently attached devices but the changes had started a process that looked like this standard would be entirely dedicated to removable anchor devices.

In 2018 a draft standard prEN 17235:2018 was circulated which detailed performance and test methods for permanently attached anchor devices. Details from the initial draft of this document looked promising, with application based considerations being covered by the requirement to test the fixings used to secure an anchor device into a load bearing structure.

The preliminary stage of changes to EN 795 of the same year confirmed that the standard would entirely focus on temporary personal fall protection anchor devices. News from members of the technical committee is that the likely release date for this will be 2023. This coupled with the prospect that prEN 17235:2018 will be pushed back, by maybe 10 years from initial draft circulation. This leaves manufacturers of permanently attached fall protection systems facing the real prospect of not having any kind of testing standard at all…

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