As we are all gripped in the throws of a polar vortex, bringing snow and ice to most of the country, now is not the time to find out if your SRL’s works in these conditions.  When the weather gets cold, moisture from many sources can get into the locking mechanism of your SRL.  When this moisture freezes will your SRL lock during a fall?

Most employers require their workers to function check their SRL’s everyday.  This practice is incredibly important but, what if the mechanism freezes later in the day?  In adverse conditions snow and ice will melt and seep into the mechanism, it will then form ice in every non-moving component.  Most SRL’s on the market use centrifugal pawls, meaning that they do not move until activated.  But, if they are frozen, they cannot  activate, meaning the SRL never locks up.

At Reliance Fall Protection we have made sure that every SRL we sell will lock up in these conditions.  It is called the Failsafe mechanism. The Failsafe mechanism is a method of forcing the pawl into locking position whenever the lifeline is extracted.  The short of it is: if the SRL is paying out and retracting line, the locking mechanism is working.

It is not just frozen mechanisms that Failsafe takes care of.  Corroded or dirty mechanisms can also cause centrifugal pawls not to activate and thus fail to lock.

You can learn more about the Reliance Failsafe mechanism with this short brochure.

The Failsafe mechanism is just one more way we are providing a Higher Standard in Personal Fall Protection.