Custom Anchors

A PE-stamped drawing is an engineering drawing signed and sealed by a licensed Professional Engineer who certifies that the design meets the governing standards and the loads at the specific site. For a custom anchor there is no catalog rating to fall back on, so the stamped drawing is the document that establishes what the anchor is rated to do and on what structure. OSHA’s qualified-person provisions (for example, 29 CFR 1926.502(d)) are commonly satisfied by PE-engineered designs, which is why a custom anchor should never be delivered without one.

OSHA requires an anchorage used for personal fall arrest to support at least 5,000 pounds for each employee attached, or to be designed, installed, and used under the supervision of a qualified person as part of a complete personal fall arrest system that maintains a safety factor of at least two (29 CFR 1910.140(c)(13) general industry; 29 CFR 1926.502(d)(15) construction). Custom anchors comply through the engineered path by definition: a qualified person designs the anchor for the specific structure, connection, and fall forces, then documents it. Tritech designs, engineers, and fabricates custom anchors when standard hardware does not fit the structure or the task.

The 2016 update to OSHA 1910 Subpart D (Walking-Working Surfaces), effective January 2017, is the current general industry standard: it aligned general industry with construction, set the 4-foot trigger for facility work, and phased out fixed-ladder cages in favor of ladder safety and fall arrest systems. It pushed many facilities to add engineered tie-off points in places standard products were never designed for, which is where custom anchors come in.