Types of Life Lines

What is a lifeline?

Lifelines are a protection system to guarantee safety at heights for all those workers who are at risk of falling. This protection system allows the transit, permanence or performance of work in high areas, starting from 2 meters. Therefore, the lifeline is a fall protection system that guarantees the safety of the worker in vertical works correctly connected to it by means of a harness, anchorage ropes, carabiners, etc.

Different types of lifelines

Life lines can be horizontal or vertical, temporary or permanent, rigid or flexible. Their use, being a guarantee of both success and safety, has grown steadily in recent years. The lines are, along with other equipment such as the fall arrest harness, the most widely known and used protection devices.

Sections of a lifelines

Lifelines consist of an anchorage device, a body restraint device (harness, belt, etc.) and a connecting subsystem that connects the two. If the lifeline is vertical, it falls within the category of connection subsystem. If on the contrary it is a horizontal lifeline, it will be an anchorage device. At Rodríguez Ros we are specialists in the installation of life and safety lines at heights. We are a specialist company in building rehabilitation, so in many situations we use fall arrest systems.

Types of life line: Vertical and Horizontal

Vertical Lifeline

Vertical life lines are considered PID. These sliding devices on a rigid anchorage line can be composed of rail or cable, so our lifeline connection element can vary. The only thing that cannot be missing from our vertical lifeline is the obligatory use of the fall arrest harness. The flexible vertical lines of cable and rope cause it to hang from an anchorage and must therefore comply with the regulations for anchorage lifelines. If, on the other hand, it is a lane, they must be fixed to a structure, i.e. they must be rigid.

Horizontal Lifeline

Horizontal anchorage lines are devices to which fall arresters can be connected to form a fall arrest system together with a vertical lifeline. Horizontal lines can be:

• Flexible: they are formed by a cable in an anchorage or a textile rope.
• Rigid: life lines through a rail.
• Temporary: they are portable life lines. They can be by means of a cable or textile.

Horizontal lifelines are designed to be used by more than one worker at a time so they must comply with a technical specification unlike other devices.