Background
Mike Vance does not wear a cape to work. He’s not from a planet with a red sun, and he’s unable to leap buildings in a single bound. He’s never considered himself a superhero by any means. Yet, as Director of Engineering at Bristol Metals in Tennessee, you could call him a Man of Steel, and he also bears a superhero’s burden in that his job is all about keeping people safe.
The Problem
“We’re a manufacturer of stainless steel pipe, and all day we’re loading flatbed trucks with multiple stacks of the pipe for shipment,” said Vance. “We’ve been loading trucks at this facility for 50 years, and the risk is certainly there for someone to fall off of the truck while it’s being loaded. There have been incidents where people have fallen. Nobody has been seriously injured, but the risk is there.”
The Solution
They found a solution, with a lower cost than a new building and allowed the workers to remain on the truck, in the form of two free standing Tether Track fall protection systems by Gorbel. The primary system features two cantilevered monorails, which enables two flatbeds to be loaded in the same area simultaneously. Each monorail uses Gorbel’s dual track, allowing two workers to pass one another safely without disconnecting the lanyard from their harness. A second Tether Track system featured a single cantilevered monorail, also with the dual track.