Understanding rope access

HMT’s Manny Williams runs through the basics of industrial rope access In less than 30 years, industrial rope access has exploded. What was once an experimental technique used to address challenging maintenance issues on offshore facilities has become a mainstream technology for accessing hard-to-reach structural elements in the petrochemical industry and beyond. As a replacement for scaffolding and other structured support methods, industrial rope access technology is less costly and time-consuming to deploy, and provides workers with more flexible access without compromising their safety. But the applicability of rope access extends far beyond this. WHAT IS ROPE ACCESS TECHNOLOGY? In many inspection and testing situations, accessing surfaces and equipment located at extreme heights or in confined spaces is often challenging. Temporary scaffolding has been the standard approach for accessing such locations; fixed scaffolding, however, is expensive, and time-consuming to install. It is equally important to note that scaffolding and other access systems often don’t provide the flexibility necessary to ensure uncompromised access and worker safety. In rope access technology,...