PRODUCT STANDARDS

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Climbing harness standards
Safety harness standards
Rope standards
Hardware standards
CE Standards list
Glossary

There are two different types of standards for harnesses: those for climbing harnesses, and those for height safety. These are fundamentally different because of the requirements of each market area. Outdoor education and adventure activities fall somewhat between the two, as these are professional activities, however the products used in them are derived from climbing harnesses and are more like them.

Climbing harness standards

World-wide there are only two climbing harness standards - the UIAA standard, and the European standard, EN 12277. The UIAA (International Federation of Mountaineering Associations) standard is based upon the European standard, with variations.

In recent years the CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) has become the most important standards organisation, and any products sold in Europe must by law be third-party certified to the relevant standards. (See Compliance and certification for an explantion of third-party certification). There is no such requirement in other countries. Many harnesses manufactured outside the EC, (in Australia, Canada, and the United States) are not certified to the European standard, or in fact to any standard, although major American manufacturers now certify to the CE standard so that they can sell their products in Europe.

Aspiring Enterprises climbing harnesses are designed to comply with the general requirements of the European harness standard, EN 12277. However, we choose not to comply with one requirement, for thread to be of a contrasting colour, and therefore most of our harnesses could not be certified to this standard. However, our harnesses are constructed to substantially exceed other requirements of the standard. For example, most of our harnesses have a minimum strength of 24 kN rather than the 15 kN specified by the harness standard, and we have certain requirements of our products which are not included in the standard.
(A kilonewton - kN - is roughly equivalent to 100 kg force, so 15 kN equals 1.5 tonnes).

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Height safety harness standards

In the height safety field there is a joint Australian and New Zealand standard, AS/NZS 1891.1 (1995). All our height safety harnesses and lanyards are certified to this standard, under a licence from the Swiss-based certification company Bureau Veritas (NZ) Ltd.

From 1994 to 1999 our Integral harness was certified against the former Australian standard, AS 1891 (1983). Although this standard is now superseded, harnesses supplied during the period when it is valid can still be used for a period of ten years.

Aspiring Enterprises has had a significant role in the development of the new height safety standard, as we supplied the only New Zealand representative on the committee which formulated this standard.

The current standard allows much more flexibility in height safety equipment, including the use of sit harnesses for roof work providing a free fall can be prevented. We have products available to take advantage of the new categories of height safety harnesses.

European versus Australian/NZ Standard

There are four European standards, EN 354 (Lanyards), EN 358 (Work-positioning), EN 361 (Fall-arrest), and EN 364 (Testing), which are collectively equivalent to the Australian/New Zealand standard AS/NZS 1891.1, published in 1995. AS/NZS 1891.1 is based on the European series of standards, and some of the requirements, such as the tests for lanyards, are virtually identical. However, the European harness standard is much softer in two important aspects. For the harness drop test AS/NZS 1891.1 uses a rope lanyard made from 12mm twisted rope, whereas EN 364 specifies that the test lanyard is made from a dynamic climbing rope complying with EN 892. The use of a dynamic rope reduces the impact on the harness significantly.

The second important difference is that although the actual drop test for height-safety harnesses is the same, there are major differences in the pass/fail criteria. In the European standards the harness merely has to retain the test dummy, whereas in AS/NZS 1891.1 there must be no breakage of components or load-bearing webbing, and no more than 20% of a stitch pattern is allowed to rupture. This makes a huge difference in whether or not a harness meets the standard.

There are a number of extra requirements for AS/NZS 1891.1, such as the webbing having to be tested for resistance to ultra-violet light, as well as specific labelling of all tested attachment points.

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Rope standards

Note: All underlined references are hyperlinks to the Glossary at the end of this page.

All climbing ropes are dynamic ropes made to one of two standards, either the CE standard EN 892, or the UIAA standard. (UIAA is the International Federation of Mountaineering Associations). There is very little difference between the two standards, the CE standard having been based on the UIAA standard, which was developed during the 1960s. Since then the UIAA standard has added some minor requirements of its own which are superimposed on the European standard.

The success of the UIAA standard is demonstrated by the fact that no certified climbing rope has ever broken, except by being loaded over a sharp edge of rock. The UIAA is developing requirements for cutting resistance of ropes, so that they would incorporate more resistance to this type of failure.

The most important requirement of the standard is the impact force requirement, under which the impact loads under standardised drop tests with a fall factor of about 1.8 must not exceed 12 kN for single ropes and twin ropes using an 80 kg load, and 800 kN for half ropes using a 55 kg load.

The number of standard falls that a rope sustains without breaking must be at least five for single and half ropes, and 12 for twin ropes. There are also requirements for sheath slippage, sheath content, knot flexibility, and elongation under an 80 kg load.

Ropes used for caving, rescue, and height safety are static ropes which are designed to have very low stretch under body weight. There are three standards which are relevant in the New Zealand situation:

These have varying requirements and are not entirely compatible with each other. Generally ropes for professional use, including rescue and height safety, should be 11mm in diameter and comply with one of these three standards. Thinner ropes, 8mm-10mm, are normally used for caving.

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Hardware standards

The European Community has a range of climbing equipment standards which covers most of the hardware commonly used in climbing, abseiling, caving, and rescue. There is also a separate standard for connectors used as PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in the height safety field. See the lists below.

Compliance and certification

Many people are not aware of the difference between standard certification and standard compliance. "Compliance" means that the manufacturer and/or distributor of the product claims that the product complies with the standard in question, which means that if it was evaluated by an independent assessment agency against the standard, it would pass the evaluation and could become certified against the standard.

"Third-party certification" means that this process has actually been carried out - usually at considerable expense to the manufacturer. Claims of compliance should be treated with a degree of scepticism, especially if the supplier does not display a detailed knowledge of the content of the standard.

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CE Standards list

The European community has extensive collections of standards for both mountaineering equipment and for personal pretective equipment (PPE) used in industry. Most of these are listed below.

Mountaineering standards PPE standards
EN 564   Accessory cords EN 341     Descenders
EN 565     Webbing EN 353-1     Fall arresters, rigid line
EN 566   Slings EN 353-2     Fall arresters, flexible line
EN 567   Rope clamps EN 354     Lanyards
EN 568   Ice anchors EN 355     Energy absorbers
EN 569   Pitons EN 358     Work-positioning belts and lanyards
EN 892   Dynamic ropes EN 360     Retractable fall arresters
EN 893   Crampons EN 361     Full body harnesses
EN 958   Energy absorbing systems EN 362   Connectors
EN 959   Rock anchors EN 363   Fall arrest systems
EN 12270   Chocks EN 364   Test methods
EN 12275   Karabiners EN 365   Instructions and marking
EN 12276   Frictional anchors EN 795   Anchor devices
EN 12277   Harnesses EN 813   Sit harnesses
EN 12278   Pulleys EN 1891   Low stretch kernmantel ropes
EN 12492   Helmets
EN 13089   Ice tools
EN   Descenders

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Glossary

Dynamic rope:
Climbing rope designed to have high elongation in a fall, which acts to absorb the energy of the fall.
Static rope (also called "low stretch rope")
Rope designed to have minimal stretch so that it does not bounce during prusiking operations.
Fall factor:
Ratio between amount of rope in under load in a fall and the distance of the fall. Strictly speaking this should only be applied to dynamic ropes , as for other ropes the figure obtained is not independent of the rope length, and is not indicative of the impact on the rope.
Single rope:
Dynamic rope certified for use in lead climbing as a single strand.
Half rope:
Dynamic rope certified for use in lead climbing with two strands used together but not "twinned".
Twin rope:
Dynamic rope certified for use in lead climbing when "twinned", that is both ropes pass through all protection elements and are subject to exactly the same impacts in a fall.

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Copyright Aspiring Enterprises, revised 9 May, 2002.
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