Integrating fall protection at the design stage

Fall protection company Latchways has announced a portfolio of roofing products that are now ‘BIM ready’.

According to the firm, architects, specifiers and contractors will have full access to downloadable BIM components from the end of April 2015, that are compatible with Revit software, through The National BIM Library and Latchways.com.

Latchways describe BIM (Building Information Modelling) as a collaborative working process for the creation and life of a building, which they say is revolutionising the UK construction industry. Latchways has been working to develop its roofing portfolio for the past 12 months, which it says will enable the industry to begin using this process nearly a year ahead of the government deadline of 2016.

Sheu Wah Ho, Latchways’ Technical Services Engineer, explains: “Our ManSafe® fall protection systems are trusted around the world to ensure people are safe on an extraordinarily wide range of structures, from buildings to towers to bridges. So it’s hugely important for us to continually be proactive and give our customers the absolute best in fall protection – that’s why we didn’t want to wait until 2016 to get BIM ready and are pleased to have our portfolio of rooftop solutions now available. BIM is really starting to be embraced by the construction industry as a whole and we wanted to be the first in fall protection to be there.”

Latchways say that by being able to integrate fall protection at the design stage of buildings, architects and specifiers get an entirely simplified process, while offering more complexity and intelligence.

The Latchways Constant Force® roofing systems currently available for BIM are Standing Seam, BUOS Composite, Single-ply and Green Roofs. The company say they have future plans to expand its BIM offering to other areas of the business, specifically overhead and vertical systems.

Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders

In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.

Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.

Listen now!