Lanyard Testing Project
Collaborative project to study and evaluate the effect of wear, environmental degradation and work environment on fall protection lanyard strength.
- Client: Simon Fraser University & British Columbia Institute of Technology
- Project Type: Custom Testing Design
About this Project
The collaboraties wanted to determine the effects of everyday construction workplace use and damage on the strength of personal fall protection lanyards.
Lanyards were purposely damaged by the researchers to simulate weld damage, abrasion and cuts.
The lanyards were drop tested from a drop structure with a test mass of 45 to 175 kg. The drop test allowed 6 to 12 foot free fall distances to test the personal energy absorber and lanyard.
Engineering Involvement:
- Design of Test Structure, Rigging and Setup
- Finalization of Drop Test Procedure
- Supervision of the Initial Drop Tests
A crew from the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet was on site for a day to film the test set up and drop test. Dr. Carolyn Sparrey was interviewed sharing the excitement and knowledge we gain from testing and the collaboration with BCIT. The segment was aired in January 2015. Videos of the various drop test can be viewed on our YouTube Channel.
This research was also featured in the Journal of Commerce.
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