Fall Protection Systems, Inc.

What Is Wrong With Flexible Lifeline Style Fall Arrest Systems?

Secondary falls are a serious concern with so called “Safety Cables”. A safety cable behaves similar to a rubber band under load. A tensioned cable “bounces” a fall victim during a fall arrest, an effect known as a “Secondary Fall”. Secondary falls are often more damaging to a fall victim that the initial fall arrest.
To minimize cable deflection and springback during fall arrests, safety cable systems cannot span long distances without using several intermediate attachments.
Safety Cables typically allow a falling worker to drop several feet before the fall is totally arrested, creating a much higher likelihood that a fall arrest victim will strike an impact hazard below. For example, “slips and trips” on a cable system are quite likely to cause a worker to strike his knees on the walking surface he is traversing.
All safety cable systems, regardless of manufacturer, have a common generic problem with intermediate supports. Intermediate attachments must support the cable to minimize fall arrest deflection, however, the cable trolley must be able to pass intermediate attachments without losing its hold on the cable.

To prevent excessive drag resistance on a walking worker’s harness attachment, safety cable trolleys must pass smoothly over the intermediate connections without hanging up on the attachment brackets.

Although some cable systems are better than others, users of even the most popular safety cable systems, complain that their cable trolleys get temporarily hung up as they pull the trolley by the intermediate attachments. Hang-ups cause the user’s selfretracting lifeline to temporarily feed out additional slack as the trolley is pulled past the resistance caused by the intermediate attachment. If the worker is walking too fast, the lifeline may be fooled into sensing a fall and may activate the brake mechanism, potentially pulling the worker over backward.This is a serious problem with virtually all safety cable systems with intermediate attachments, and documented falls have been caused by this problem.

These installers are mounting a typical "Intermediate Attachment Bracket" on a Horizontal Support Arm for one of our Safety Cable Systems. The braided stainless steel wire rope is typical of those used throughout the industry.

To minimize the effect of constant stress loads on the safety cable, as well as to the structure to which it is attached, safety cable systems are typically installed with only 1200# of tension on the cables. Therefore, the cable may “droop” to some extent between connections. Shock absorbers may be added to help minimize cable deflection, although their use delivers minimal improvement. Lanyards, or light-weight self-retracting life lines (SRL’s), are used with typical safety cable systems to minimize traversing problems. Heavier self-retracting lifeline systems tend to hangup on the intermediate connections while traversing the system. Furthermore, because typically there is no brake in the cable trolley system, when a worker falls anywhere but in the center of the span between the overhead cable attachments, he is likely to coast down hill toward the center of equilibrium of the span between supporting attachments.
Falls with safety cable systems always introduce significant horizontal load stress on a building structure. Most buildings are not designed to absorb such a severe horizontal load. Unless the system is properly engineered, your building structure may suffer costly structural damage due to the horizontal stresses introduced by a fall arrest with a safety cable system.
Regardless of the manufacturer, all professionally engineered safety cable systems, must be quarantined after a fall arrest, and a thorough recertification inspection by a competent person is required before the system may be used again.
Falls are not covered under the typical safety cable manufacturers’ limited one year warranty. After a fall, virtually every professionally engineered safety cable system, including ours, must be taken out of service temporarily until it has been repaired. Most safety cable system manufacturers’ repair procedures require temporary dismantling of the system while a factory-trained professional replaces the costly damaged parts.

The apparent major advantage of safety cables is lower initial cost, until you do a little research into our rigid trolley rail systems, which address every one of these issues with a logical solution!


Cable Systems allow longer falls, dangerous secondary falls (bounces) which can lead to potential injuries.	Our Trolley Beam System arrests falls in the shortest distance possible with no secondary falls. Result: Eliminates injuries.

Rigid Trolley Rail Style Fall Protection Systems:

Our most popular line of equipment, these systems are widely recognized as the current standard of the industry! No other commercially available fall protection system delivers a safer fall arrest, and no other company in America installs as many systems as we do. Trolley Beams, despite being universally considered the most effective fall protection systems, were once limited to short coverage spans. The development of patented high strength integrated truss-based systems by Fall Protection Systems, Inc., has made FPS, Inc. the leading system manufacturer and installer in the U.S.A. These systems are so unique they are covered under US patent numbers 6,269,904B1 and D440,023S. Here’s why they are the most popular system in America.

Highest safety performance available
Nothing is more effective at arresting falls than our trolley beam system. Total maximum fall distances of less than two feet are common with our system! No secondary falls (“no bounces during a fall arrest”) are introduced by the system! Slips and Trips are typically arrested before a worker can fall to his knees.
User Friendliness
These systems eliminate trolley hangups and excessive drag on the lifeline and trolley because there are no intermediate connections. Our trolley rail systems are laser leveled, guaranteeing a level, smooth running system end to end. In dangerous weather, such as high winds or icy conditions, we recommend that a worker “lock” and continue holding the lifeline,drawing it along with him while traversing a slippery vehicle, providing him with moving overhead support to hold on to while walking that will help maintain his balance.
Unlimited length and future expansion capability
Want to extend the system later? No problem. Inexpensive extensions of any length desired can be added at any time. There is no limit on the total length of this system. We have several multi-user systems in the field that exceed one thousand feet in continuous length. How would you efficiently extend a fixed length wire rope system? Depending on the manufacturer, many single span safety cable systems are limited to maximum lengths of between 120 and 150 feet.
Sole Source Responsibility
Fall Protection Systems engineers, manufactures, and installs most of our systems, eliminating costly middlemen and lowering your cost. In the unlikely situation where anything needs warranty attention, you have but one finger to point and we will respond immediately. No other company in the world installs as many systems as we do, and our experienced award-winning installation service is exceptional.
Durability and Reliability
Without question, Fall Protection Systems manufactures the most durable system in the industry. In fact, nothing else compares. None of our thousands of systems in the field has every needed repairs after a fall arrest! That means unnecessary downtime is eliminated for our customers, and eliminates the high expense that all safety cable customers are required to spend as required by OSHA regulations to recertify a system after a fall arrest. Our trolley beam systems are so durable, recertification is not necessary after a fall arrest!
Recertification After A Fall
Our trolley beam systems are so durable, recertification is not required after a fall arrest! Fall Protection Systems will ask you to visually look over your system, however, no system has ever required rework in our many years of experience. Note: The self-retracting lifeline may require recertification if the red fall indicator has appeared. Consult User Instruction Manual.
Five-Year Unlimited Warranty
Our five year “no strings attached” full warranty is simply the best in the industry! (Refer to warranty.)
Low Cost/Affordability
We proudly lead the fall protection industry in America with our exceptionally high quality products and service, user-friendly performance, and reliability...yet the cost is surprisingly low. We manufacture and install more fall protection systems each year than any other company in America. You may be quite pleasantly surprised to learn how, despite the obvious unparalleled value, our trolley beam systems are typically priced about the same as comparable safety cable systems.
Delivery, Terms and Conditions
From the time you place your order, we coordinate the installation with your people. Our Field Installation Superintendent will work with you to obtain permits and variations if necessary to clear the installation through proper channels. Once approval is attained, we typically install our systems within six to eight weeks after order placement.
Free User Training and Certification
Free User Training and Certification are included with your system. We provide an instructional video tape for annual recertification for your workers as required by OSHA regulations. We also provide convenient pocket-sized training manuals, and OSHA-required instructional training logs to record training dates. Each of your workers will also receive personal wallet sized “authorized user certification” cards. This package eliminates all concerns regarding OSHA compliance.