DE29919016U1 - Safety harness as part of personal protective equipment - Google Patents

Description

··

Abitz & Partner °·- ^: ^ ^Abitz

European Patent Attorneys M. Gritschneder

European Trademark Attorneys Dipi.-phyj.

Patent Attorneys _{A Frhr> y(m Wittgensfein}

Dr. Dipl.-Chem.

J. Morf

Dr. Dipl.-Chcm. Abitz & Partner, PO Box 86 01 09, D-81628 Munich

Postal Address / Postal Address PO Box 86 01 09 D-81628 Munich

29 October 1999 32724/harness

Soll GmbH

Seligenweg 10

D-95028 Hof
Federal Republic of Germany

Full body harness as part of personal protective equipment

Description

The invention relates to a safety harness that is part of a fall protection system. The safety harness has shoulder, chest and leg straps that are intended to enclose the user's body so that it is held firmly in all situations. The safety harness has at least one eyelet for connecting connecting devices (ropes/straps).

The safety harness is a personal protective equipment that safely catches the user after a fall and holds him in an ergonomically favorable manner. The forces that occur when catching are essentially transferred to parts of the body that can absorb the force.

The harness usually has a front and a rear catch eyelet, whereby the rear catch eyelet is arranged so that it can be moved. The chest/abdominal belt can have two side catch eyelets for connecting a holding rope and a front catch eyelet for connecting to the fall arrester of the

House address / Street address-;-

Poschingerstrasse 6 j :

D-81679 Munich -

•Telephone:.·· ■ · _# ·· _# telefax;; .·· ; ; ^Jjlail: Register court : '.^9-89-38 49 3?··. : iflfo@abitz.de Munich PR

The shoulder, chest/belly and leg straps have buckles or plug-in frames for closing/opening and adjusting the size of the harness. The harness can be equipped with padding in the special force-transmitting areas.

Such a safety harness is known from EP-A 0 584 521, EP-A 0 508 278, DE-U 89 14 878 and US 4,378,921. These safety harnesses significantly restrict freedom of movement and are difficult to put on.

The object of the invention is to provide a safety harness that restricts freedom of movement as little as possible and is easy to put on.

According to the invention, this object is achieved in that the

Shoulder, chest/belly and leg straps at least partially

consist of a webbing that has a high degree of flexibility or elasticity.

Preferably, the straps for the safety harness according to the invention are designed as follows:

The shoulder and chest/abdominal straps are made of particularly light and flexible straps and the leg straps are made of an elastic strap with a defined stretch. This harness is suitable for work in exposed areas when the user changes his position only slightly. The flexibility of the shoulder and chest/abdominal straps mainly facilitates movements of the upper body.

If, on the other hand, the chest/belly and leg straps are made of flexible webbing and the shoulder straps are made of elastic webbing, the harness is primarily suitable for climbing, as it is then important that the harness does not rub in the crotch.

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The flexible belt strap is characterized by greater mobility than the straps previously available, thus adapting better to the body, following body movements more easily and exhibiting favorable behavior in handling, i.e. when closing and opening the straps.

The elastic strap is designed in such a way that a defined stretch is provided, which gives the user a much better range of motion, for example when climbing.

Overall, the straps are designed to be softer to prevent chafing and rubbing. This gives the harness practical advantages when putting it on, wearing it and using it (user-friendliness).

The safety harness according to the invention thus differs from the state of the art in particular due to differently designed semi-finished products.

Embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below with reference to the drawing.

Fig. 1 a full body harness in which the shoulder and chest/abdominal straps are made of particularly flexible webbing and the leg straps are made of particularly elastic webbing;

Fig. 2 a full body harness in which the shoulder straps are made of particularly elastic webbing and the chest/abdominal straps and the leg straps are made of particularly flexible webbing, and

Fig. 3 shows a safety harness similar to that of Fig. 2, whereby the straps are fixed and stabilized at the crossing points and transitions by additional plastic plates.

The safety harness 10 has shoulder, chest/belly and leg straps 12, 14, 16 which enclose the user's body so that it is held firmly in all situations. The safety harness 10 is equipped with a front eyelet 18 and a rear eyelet (not shown) for connecting connecting means (ropes/straps). The rear eyelet is arranged so that it can be moved and is fixed in a holding plate 20 in accordance with EF-A 0 807 451, Fig. 5 to 8. Two side eyelets 22 are also built into the chest/belly strap 14 for connecting the connecting means and, if necessary, a further eyelet 24 for connecting to the fall arrester of the fall protection device.

The shoulder, chest/abdominal and leg straps 12, 14, 16 are made of approximately 45 mm wide straps. When worn, the shoulder straps 12 run from the front upper center of the user's body over the shoulders, cross at the back of the body and are sewn to the leg straps 16 below the abdominal/chest strap 14 after passing through the side retaining eyelets. At their rear crossing point, the shoulder straps 12 are fixed by the plastic plate 20, in which the rear catch eyelet is also inserted.

The chest/abdominal belt 14 encloses the body of the user and is fixed to the respective crossing shoulder and leg straps 12, 16 by means of a double strap layer 26 and buckles 28 on both sides in the front body area.

The leg straps 16 consist of the two thigh-enclosing loops 30, each of which is held by straps 32 that connect to the shoulder straps 12 in the middle of the body. These straps 32 also serve to fix the leg straps 16 to the chest/abdominal strap as mentioned above.

14. In addition, there is a strap connection 34 between the loops 30 of the leg straps 16.

The shoulder, chest/belly and leg straps 12, 14, 16 have fittings for closing/opening and for adjusting the size of the full body harness 10. The fittings are buckles or plug-in frames and square double frames 36 in accordance with DE-U 299 06 048.

The two side buckles 28 fix the crossing points between the rear shoulder straps 12 and the chest/waist strap 14.

The square double frames 36 are used to connect the shoulder straps 12 with the straps 32 of the leg straps 16, to close the chest/abdominal strap 14 and to close the loops 30 of the leg straps 16. The square double frames 36 make it easier to close and open the shoulder, chest and leg straps 12, 14, 16 and to insert or remove the strap and at the same time ensure a reliable connection of these straps.

The shoulder and leg straps 12, 16 as well as the abdominal/chest strap 14 are closed and opened by pulling the respective strap ends through the square double frames 36.

In front of the stomach, the safety harness 10 is closed by pulling the strap 32 extending from the right loop 30 of the leg straps 16 through the front catch eyelet 18 and inserting the buckle with the central bar into the plug-in frame 40.

If required, the chest/belly belt 14 can be fitted with additional loops with attachment eyes 44 on both sides and on the back.

The full body harness 10 is equipped with padding 38 in the special force-transmitting areas. Padding 38 is provided in some cases on both shoulder and leg straps 12, 16 as well as on the chest/abdominal strap 14, which are held to the respective strap with sewn-on loops 42.

The full body harness 10 is equipped with the rear catch eyelet, which is positioned by the artificial plate 20, the front catch eyelet and the two side retaining eyes 22 for connecting the connecting means. The connecting means are ropes 5 or straps, namely at the rear catch eyelet and the front catch eyelet 18 connecting means in accordance with EN 354 and at the retaining eyes 22 connecting means in accordance with EN 358. If required, the additional front catch eyelet 24 is installed on the chest/abdominal belt 14 for connection to a fall arrest device.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the shoulder straps 12, the straps 32 of the leg straps 16 and the chest/abdominal strap 14 are made of light, flexible webbing A (synthetic fiber yarns). The loops 30 and the strap connection of the leg straps 16 are made of elastic webbing B (synthetic fiber yarns with defined rubber insert; shown hatched in Fig. 1).

The straps A and B have the following properties:

The straps A are made of synthetic fibre yarns and are particularly flexible and light. The flexibility is particularly noticeable in the softer edges of the straps A. The strap A can be easily compressed in the transverse direction.

Weight of the tape: 71.7 g/m +/- 10%

Elongation at 500 daN and

a preload of 50 daN: 2.9% +/- 8%

The straps B are elastic (comparable to suspenders), i.e. they are additionally made with cross-wound rubber thread.

Weight of the tape: 82.8 g/m +/- 10%

Elongation at 500 daN and

a preload of 50 daN: 5.3% +/- 10%

In the embodiment of Fig. 2, shoulder straps 12 consist of elastic straps B and the chest/belly and leg straps 14, 16 consist of flexible straps A. Otherwise, this embodiment corresponds to that of Fig. 1.

In the embodiment of Fig. 3, the shoulder straps 12 consist of elastic straps B. The leg straps 16 and the chest/abdominal strap 14 consist of flexible strap A. The chest/abdominal strap 14 is fixed in the front area at the intersection points with the shoulder straps 12 with underlying plastic plates 48, which are identical to the plastic plate 20 at the intersection of the shoulder straps 12 on the back, and in the rear area by cut openings in the rear padding. At the intersection points on both sides, the connection of the shoulder straps 12 with the leg straps 16 is additionally stabilized by plastic plates 50, which are arranged at the transition of the straps 32 into the loops 30. The lateral retaining eyelets 22 are held in the chest/abdominal strap 14 and installed in the underlying plastic plates 48. The plastic plates 50 are approximately rectangular and are slit four times lengthwise and twice crosswise for strap passages. The shoulder straps 12 coming from the back continue as the front part of the loops 30 after passing through the plates 50 and the straps 32 continue after the plates 50 as the rear part of these loops 30. The padding 38 on the shoulder and leg straps 12, 16 as well as the side and rear attachment eyelets 44 shown in Fig. 1 are omitted in the embodiment of Fig. 3.

List of reference symbols

10 Safety harness

12 shoulder straps

14 Chest/belly strap

16 leg straps

18 front safety eyelet

20 Holding plate

22 side retaining eyelet

24 additional catch loops

2 6 double strap layer 28 side buckles

3 0 loops 32 straps

34 Band connection

3 6 square double frame

3 8 Upholstery

4 0 Push-through frame 42 loops

44 towing eyes

48 plastic panels

50 plastic sheets

Claims (8)

1. A safety harness ( 10 ) with shoulder, chest and leg straps ( 12 , 14 , 16 ) intended to enclose the user's body in such a way that the user is held firmly in all situations, and with at least one eyelet ( 18 , 22 ) for connecting connecting means, characterized in that the shoulder, chest/abdominal and leg straps ( 12 , 14 , 16 ) consist at least partially of a strap (A, B) which has a high degree of flexibility or a high degree of elasticity. 2. Safety harness according to claim 1, characterized in that the leg straps ( 16 ) have loops ( 30 ) enclosing the thighs, a strap connection ( 34) connecting these loops (30 ) and straps ( 32 ) connecting the loops ( 30 ) to the shoulder and chest/abdominal straps ( 12 , 14 ). 3. Safety harness according to claim 2, characterized in that the shoulder straps ( 12 ), the straps ( 32 ) of the leg straps ( 16 ) and the chest/abdominal strap ( 14 ) consist of the strap (A) of high flexibility and the loops ( 30 ) and the strap connection ( 34 ) of the leg straps ( 16 ) consist of the strap (B) of high elasticity. 4. A fall arrest harness according to claim 2, characterized in that the shoulder straps ( 12 ) consist of elastic straps (B) and the chest/abdominal and leg straps ( 14 , 16 ) consist of flexible straps (A). 5. Safety harness according to claim 4, characterized in that the chest/abdominal belt ( 14 ) is fixed in the front area at the intersection points with the shoulder belts ( 12 ) with underlaid plastic plates ( 48 ) and in the rear area by cut openings in a rear padding and lateral retaining eyes ( 22 ) are held in the chest/abdominal belt ( 14 ) and built into the underlaid plastic plates ( 48 ). 6. Safety harness according to claim 5, characterized in that the transition from the shoulder straps ( 12 ) to the leg straps ( 16 ) is additionally stabilized by plastic plates ( 50 ) at the crossing points on both sides. 7. Safety harness according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the belt strap (B) of high elasticity is cross-wound with a rubber thread. 8. Safety harness according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the belt strap (A) of high flexibility has the following values:

Tape weight: 71.7 g/m ± 10%
Elongation at 500 daN and
a preload of 50 daN: 2.9% ± 8%

and that the belt straps (B) of high elasticity have the following
Values:

Tape weight: 82.8 g/m ± 10%
Elongation at 500 daN and
a preload of 50 daN: 5.3% ± 10%.