New Fall Prevention Technology Transferred Free to Construction Sites... Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, "Commercialization in Industrial Sites"

Gongdan Industrial Safety and Health Research Institute Applies Scaffold Patent Technology to Construction Sites

Data on installation and dismantling of scaffolding.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] New technology to prevent fall accidents will be provided free of charge at construction sites.

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency's Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute is conducting a project to commercialize the 'System Scaffold Dedicated Horizontal Leading Safety Railing,' developed to prevent fall accidents during scaffold work at construction sites, by transferring the technology to private companies.

The leading safety railing was patented in March of this year and the technology has been transferred free of charge to eight domestic small and medium-sized enterprises so far. Among them, three companies have obtained safety certification (prefabricated safety railing) and have commercialized the product.

At domestic construction sites, external scaffolds are installed by first setting up the upper work platform from the lower work platform, then moving to the upper platform to install the safety railing without any railing in place. During dismantling, the safety railing is removed first, which poses a high risk of falling from the edge of the work platform.

Researcher Park Ju-dong and his team at the institute developed a groundbreaking method for installing safety railings on system scaffolds for the first time in Korea in October 2020.

The leading safety railing allows installation and dismantling of safety railings at the edge of the upper work platform from the lower work platform of the scaffold, and also enables safe work on the lower work platform where the safety railing is installed during scaffold dismantling.

The institute produced a promotional video to facilitate field application of this technology and released it on YouTube. It was exhibited at the International Safety and Health Exhibition during the Occupational Safety and Health Emphasis Week in July this year, attracting attention.

Recently, it was first applied at a private company in Geoje City, Gyeongnam Province, and at a public order site in the Busan area, receiving positive evaluations from on-site workers.

Kim Eun-ah, Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute at the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, said, “We hope the leading safety railing will be actively utilized to prevent fall accidents during scaffold installation and dismantling at construction sites,” and added, “We will further strengthen practical research that can fundamentally prevent fatal accidents in industrial sites.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.