In the past, companies may have put up a chain and a sign to signal that there was a potential fall danger at an opening. However, as many people have found out the hard way, chains have a high failure rate due to their reliance on a person to open and close them, as well as being overall more dangerous due to the highly exposed opening. Enter the self-closing industrial safety gate. Built to comply with the most up to date OSHA regulations, these self closing gates use a spring-loaded mechanism that automatically closes behind the person who moves through the gate.
If you’ve been tasked with updating the fall protection systems in your facility to meet OSHA or similar requirements, then self-closing gates should be high on your list.
Why Safety Gates?
Workers have a lot going on when they are on the job. They might be performing several detailed tasks at once or using 100% of their attention to performing a particular job. Having to balance these duties with the additional burden of keeping themselves safe leaves too much room for error. Safety gates do double duty of protecting workers from unnecessary falls and providing a layer of self-awareness as they go about their job.
Where are self-closing safety gates useful?
It’s not always obvious which areas of your facility require fall protection. Some of these areas may have had little to no protection in the past, but are in need of getting a safety upgrade.
- Stair Openings: One of the most common usages for self closing gates is at stair entrances. Stair falls happen all the time and these safety gates help prevent unnecessary damages.
- Ladder Openings: Maybe because we use ladders so often in manufacturing and industrial settings, the danger of an unprotected ladder opening often is overlooked. However, leaving a ladder without a safety gate doesn’t get the job of fall protection done. Self closing gates are a perfect solution in this situation and require very little effort to install and use.
- Roof Hatch Openings: In addition to the necessary guardrail, self-closing safety gates allow for the safe and efficient entrance and exit of roof hatch opening.
- Hazardous Areas: When an area has been partitioned off due to potentially hazardous circumstances, a safety gate is a perfect way to not only prevent unnecessary falls but can also raise psychological awareness that the area requires a different level of safety awareness.
- Special or Safe walking areas: Not only do self closing gates allow for the safe entrance and exit on a demarcated walking path, they also send a signal that the person is entering or exiting a unique walking area, amping up their overall awareness.
At Fabenco, our safety gates are built in America to the highest standards and with only the highest quality materials available. Our gates ship quickly and are a breeze to install with tools you’ll already have on hand. Adding self closing gates is an easy upgrade to make as you work to maintain OSHA, ANSI and IBC compliance.
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