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When implementing OSHA and other regulatory guidelines for fall protection devices, many safety professionals come across obstacles to guardrail placement and installation. Irregularly placed equipment, abnormal parapets and ventilation systems crossing a roof's leading edge are just several of the issues safety managers and property owners must work around.
It's a common dilemma that leaves those responsible for fall protection unsure of the most effective solution. Both standard and modular railing systems are effective options for these challenges. Here, we explore the differences between the two and explain how modular industrial guardrails can lead to major benefits to workflow and jobsite adaptability.
Standard guardrails are largely a permanent type of fall protection barrier, while modular railing systems are more versatile and resolve far more fall protection requirements under different use cases. The latter even work well in standard applications, not just unique circumstances. Because their defining quality is adaptability, they can be placed and removed easily.
True modularity requires total independence, where each individual unit is capable of universal placement in its intended application. To that end, modular rails must be easy to install on a wide range of materials and structural forms.
For instance, the placement of industrial guardrails sometimes conflicts with space requirements or availability of standard installation points. A fully modular handrail resolves these issues by anchoring over the edge of the elevated platform, where it installs horizontally into the sidewall.
This may sound more challenging at first, but the best rooftop railings manufacturer will also ensure modular handrails are easy to install by designing options with:
Minimal tools
Standard anchor bolts
Simple designs
Easily operated installation mechanisms
As with all types of industrial guardrails, also make sure the dimensions and rail spacing conform to the highest possible number of regulatory standards. Always check your own local OSHA or CCOHS standards to maintain proper compliance. In most cases, regulations don't prescribe installation methods, and the same dimension, spacing, material and other standards apply to standard and modular guardrails.
Some unique situations require custom fall protection barriers that would be impossible using standard guardrails. Modular guardrail platforms can extend your capacities by adapting to your equipment and space requirements, rather than alter workflow around inefficient (or worse, ineffective) rail placement.
Machine guarding, for example, often involves unique spaces and devices. When the machine guards must also accommodate elevated work platforms, the challenges can seem impossible. This, however is where modular railing systems can shine. Such scenarios often include:
Tall HVAC units
Railway equipment
Commercial chillers or ovens
Stationary fuel tanks & other storage devices
Grain silos and other agricultural sites
Any device that must be protected while enabling access to critical components located beyond arm's reach requires a more innovative guardrail solution than you'll typically achieve using standard options.
It's important that guardrails can easily go wherever they're needed. Unlike standard guardrails, modular systems adapt to a wide range of fittings, connection pieces and other hardware components. Truly modular railings should be built for a wide range of interchangeable components, including:
Terminated wall flanges
Rail brackets
Double and corner swivels
Three-way tees (such as for top rails)
Four-way lateral intersections with a center pipe recess
Cross-overs (for continuous cross rails installed along the inside of vertical posts)
While standard guardrails are almost always permanently installed, modular rails are built for changing needs. While this could help with cost saving efforts, it also offers the flexibility to help workers maintain impeccable safety standards while becoming more easily adaptable to changing workflows.
Even if your current needs for a passive fall protection system are only basic, they may not stay that way. For example, significant equipment changes on a roof or elevated platform could necessitate a change of access points. Future property additions especially may require moving external access points, causing ripple effects throughout the surrounding fall protection system. If there's any chance of a change in guardrail placement, modular rails can cover your broadest possible interests.
Choosing the right installation method is as critical as deciding on the right equipment. Even with the best rooftop railings, modular guardrails or other fall protection barriers available, full compliance still depends on impeccable installations. It makes no difference whether the installation requirements are unique – the same regulatory standards apply (generally, OSHA 1910.29).
In many of the scenarios previously mentioned, there could be some reason industrial guardrails can't install directly into the device, including:
Preserving equipment or material warranties
Keeping seals intact for proper device function
Maintaining a corrosion- and weather-resistant surface
In these scenarios, standard guardrails can put safety managers in a difficult position because they are intended only for specific applications
However, modular railing systems can easily resolve these problems by allowing three different installation methods:
Concrete pads
Various points along a unit's frame
Down and over the side of a wall (as described above)
With modular guardrail systems, you'll be perfectly equipped to maintain both safety regulations and equipment/material integrity, without compromising on either.
To safety managers, easy installation and versatility are merely helpful; their needs go well past issues of time and cost efficiency. With modular railings, though, user-friendliness translates directly to safer conditions. Whenever jobsite conditions or plans change, it's important that your fall protection barriers facilitate efficient and accurate adjustments.
Traditional guardrails are designed for set-it-and-forget-it permanence. There's a time and a place for this approach, but it could lead to difficulties when adaptability is required.
Contrast this to most standard guardrails, where installation could involve any combination of:
Concrete drilling
Epoxies
Fresh cement
Baseplates, sleeves, and other hardware (which is often guardrail specific)
Dual handheld tools (e.g., two wrenches to tighten a nut and bolt unit)
Meanwhile modular railings can be moved and configured as needed, and installation is possible with fewer tools. The most advanced modular guardrails only require standard anchor bolts and a single hex wrench.
With BlueWater's modular railing systems, companies in the roofing, construction, warehousing, energy, and countless other verticals can fulfill most of their fall protection needs, even as they change or meet unanticipated challenges.
Having innovated many of the best rooftop railings and modular systems in use today, we're also capable of fully custom components; but the chances are, whatever fall protection challenges you're facing, we've already developed a solution. Contact us today, and let’s discuss your unique fall protection needs.