DEGRADATION OF SEAT BELTS AGAINST FALLS DUE TO EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL AGENTS BY BUSINESS INDUSTRY
Personal Protective Equipment, Full Body Harnesses Degradation, Textile Materials Tests, Static Resistance Test, Dynamic Resistance Test
Full body harnesses ares used as a protective equipment in order to minimize the
consequences of high falls and require good mechanical properties to provide the
necessary protection to the user. There are few studies about the characterization of
used full body harnesses in order to identify and quantify the loss of mechanical
properties after its usage time. Previous studies showed those protective equipment
lose their protective properties during service life, caused by several destructive
factors as well as UV, dust, chemicals, temperature changes and humidity, as the
direct contact with sharp objects and rough surfaces. The objective of this work is to
present degradations found in full body harnesses after use, relating these defects to
the types of activity to which they were exposed. The methodology used is based on
the use of full body harnesses samples againdt falls used by workers in several
companies, performing visual inspection, static and dynamic tests on said samples. It
is a relevant topic, weak unexploited in Brazil and in the world, and which tends to
collaborate with the development of technological innovations in the manufacture of
full body harnesses, that can offer beyond better comfort, more protection and a
wider range of applications.