Falling accidents from lower heights can already cause serious injuries, not infrequently they end fatally. The “Skyvest” airbag waistcoat significantly reduces this risk. SKYLOTEC, as a manufacturer of protective equipment, presents a solution that is designed to prevent serious injuries in the event of falls from low heights. The “Skyvest” is equipped with an intelligent system that protects all relevant parts of the body and functions wirelessly. It is ideally suited at heights between 1.70 and 3.20 metres.
„Ladders are among the most common accident triggers for falls. The ‘Skyvest’ airbag waistcoat significantly reduces the risk of serious injury in an emergency.“
When people fall, the injuries tend to be severe. This is true even at lower heights of less than two metres - for example, when working on ladders or scaffolding. Around twelve percent of all fatal fall accidents occur at these heights. According to a statistical survey by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for the period from 2009 to 2015, around 50 percent of all fatal fall accidents occur at heights of less than five metres. SKYLOTEC is introducing a new product to prevent serious injuries from falls from low heights: With the “Skyvest” airbag waistcoat, the German manufacturer of protective equipment, in cooperation with Minerva - AS GmbH, is launching a solution on the market that is equipped with an intelligent protection system. This is ideally suited for activities at heights between 1.70 and 3.20 metres. The waistcoat is thus suitable, for example, for electricians or employees in building management, for truck drivers, harbour workers, service technicians, garage builders, employees in machine maintenance and servicing or also private persons who carry out activities on a ladder, for example.
“The ‘Skyvest’ airbag waistcoat from SKYLOTEC is equipped with an intelligent protection system that works wirelessly and protects all relevant parts of the body.“
Patented and PPE combinable
The “Skyvest” has been tested by the BMW research centre for crash tests and certified by TÜV as personal protective equipment (PPE). Users of the “Skyvest” should be between 1.70 and 1.90 metres tall and weigh a maximum of 100 kilograms. The instructions for use should be read before use, training is not necessary. The patented system can also be combined with a harness, which is worn anyway as part of the PPE against falls from a height. The airbag waistcoat is always suitable when there is a potential hazard but no fall arrest system according to EN 363 is required. With such fall arrest systems there is also the problem that they require a certain fall distance in order to break and stop a fall in the first place. This is similar to the braking distance of a car: if this braking distance is not adhered to, in the worst case, a fall can result in significant injuries already in the lower 2 metres. When it comes to work safety, the “Skyvest” offers another advantage: it is equipped with reflective materials that create 360° visibility. This increases the visibility of users, for example, in the rain, in the shade, at dusk or in the dark.
Airbag that triggers automatically
„In the event of a fall, the airbag of the ‘Skyvest’ deploys and reduces the forces acting on the back by at least 40 per cent on impact.”
The core of the intelligent protection system is a sensor-controlled airbag that reduces the forces acting on the back in the event of a fall by at least 40 percent and significantly reduces the risk of injury to vital parts of the body. With a probability of 95 percent, no irreversible injuries occur in the event of a fall. A recyclable gas cartridge is inserted into the waistcoat, which triggers the airbag in an emergency. It can be activated and deactivated by pressing a button. An automatic system check shows in green or red via an LED light whether the activation is complete. In this way, the risk of an erroneous application can be reduced to a minimum.
Once activated, an integrated sensor unit analyses the user's position and location up to 1,100 times per second. The sensor unit works wirelessly and can be charged within about two hours via a USB interface. The battery life is up to 24 hours. The waistcoat can therefore be worn for the entire working day. If, for example, a fall requires deployment, the airbag inflates automatically within just 0.2 seconds. CO2 is fed into the airbag via the gas cartridge and the airbag then inflates. Once it has inflated in a fall and the “Skyvest” has been checked for damage, the system can be easily refilled with a new gas cartridge and reused. This protects the environment and also reduces costs because the waistcoat does not have to be completely replaced after the airbag has been deployed. Employers who invest in the safety of their employees protect them from long-term health problems that can be caused by a fall from a low height. On the other hand, it prevents long periods of absence, which have noticeable economic and organisational consequences for the company.