Safety ropes refer to ropes used to protect personnel and items during high-altitude operations, usually synthetic fiber ropes, hemp ropes, or steel wire ropes. When used for high-altitude operations such as construction, installation, and maintenance, it is suitable for similar types of work such as external electricians, construction workers, telecommunications workers, and wire maintenance.

Characteristics of safety ropes and cables

High strength, wear-resistant, durable, moldy and alkali resistant, simple and lightweight.

Precautions for using safety ropes:

1. Before using the safety rope, it is necessary to conduct an inspection. If it is found to be damaged, stop using it. When wearing it, fasten the movable clip tightly and do not come into contact with open flames and chemicals.

2. Always keep the safety rope clean and store it properly after use. After getting dirty, wash it with warm water and soapy water and let it dry in the shade. Do not soak it in hot water or burn it in the sun.

3. After one year of use, it is necessary to conduct an inspection and extract 1% of the used parts for tensile testing. It is considered qualified if there is no damage or significant deformation to each component (those that have been sampled and tested must not be used again).

Safety performance

Safety ropes are protective equipment used to prevent high-altitude workers from falling. Because the higher the height of the fall, the greater the impact force it receives, the safety rope must meet the following two basic conditions:

(1) Must have sufficient strength to withstand the impact force when the human body falls;

(2) It can prevent the human body from falling to a certain limit that can cause injury (i.e. it should be able to pull the human body before this limit to prevent it from falling again). What needs to be further explained is that when the human body falls from a high place, if it exceeds a certain limit, even if the person is pulled with a rope, the impact force received is too great, which can cause damage to the human organs and death. For this reason, the length of the rope should not be too long and should be limited.

Safety ropes usually assess two strength indicators in terms of strength, namely tensile strength and impact resistance. The standard requires that the tensile strength (ultimate tensile force) of seat belts and their components should be greater than the longitudinal tensile force caused by the weight of the human body in the direction of falling.

In terms of impact strength, the impact strength of safety ropes and accessories is required to withstand the impact force caused by the human body falling in the direction of falling. Usually, the magnitude of the impact force is mainly determined by the weight and distance of the person falling (i.e. impact distance), which is closely related to the length of the safety rope. The longer the hanging rope, the greater the impact distance, and the greater the impact force. Theoretical proof shows that the human body is about to be injured when subjected to a 900kg impact force. Therefore, the length of the safety rope should be limited to an extremely short range while ensuring operational activities.

The standard sets the rope length of safety ropes at 0.5-3m for various purposes. If a safety belt is hung at high altitude, with a rope length of 3m, and an 84kg heavy object is dropped, the impact load can reach 6.5N, which is about one-third less than the impact force causing the injury, ensuring safety.