National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 12811‑4:2013.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee B/514/42, Access and working platforms.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 December 2013.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 28 September 2013.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this Europe an Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning s uch national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by tra nslation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and U nited Kingdom.

Foreword

This document (EN 12811‑4:2013) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 53 “Temporary works equipment”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2014, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by May 2014.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN [and/or CENELEC] shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This European Standard is part of a series of standards EN 12811, Temporary works equipment, which consists of the following parts:

Part 1: Scaffolds — Performance requirements and general design;
Part 2: Information on materials;
Part 3: Load testing;
Part 4: Protection fans for scaffolds — Performance requirements and product design.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

Each year, many objects fall from a height and strike people. Often, this leads to serious injury, because the impact is on the head. This statistic does not take into account the many near misses.

The dangers associated with falling objects has been recognized by the European Commission, which dealt with the matter by writing an amendment to the Work Equipment Directive (89/655/EEC) that deals exclusively with work at height (2001/45/EEC) and requires the prevention of objects falling off scaffolds.

Usually the provision for preventing such dangerous occurrences takes the form of a “toe -board” attached to the edge of the platform. However, toe-boards according to EN 12811‑1 should be at least 150 mm high and statistics indicate that they are not always effective. Therefore, additional protection is often specified, by local by-laws, especially for scaffolds erected above areas where members of the public cannot be prevented from entering, for example in city and town centres.

One way of satisfying these local regulations is to provide a protection fan attached to the main scaffold at some distance below the working platform.

Because these protection fans are required to arrest the fall of substantial objects such as bricks, blocks, scaffold boards and the like, they could be considered as a necessary safety -critical accessory for scaffolds. This, coupled with the fact that they have to arrest the fall of significant objects, i.e. subjected to significant dynamic loads, puts them in the category of complex structures. Yet, in many European countries, there are no rules to govern the design and installati on of protection fans.

Across much of Europe, protection fans are:

erected in configurations that are not verified; and
attached arbitrarily to scaffolds.

That is to say, the information related to protection fans, such as it is, is very basic. Under t he suite of standards drawn up by CEN TC 53, Temporary works equipment has had its design formali zed across Europe. The current situation is that un -designed and unverified components are being attached to scaffolds. Therefore, it is necessary to formali ze the design and erection of protection fans.

1 Scope

This European Standard specifies product requirements, methods of structural and general design and tests for protection fans for scaffolds to protect workers as well as members of public from objects that may fall off the outside edge of scaffolds being used close to where they are working or passing by.

This European Standard only applies to protection fans while the scaffold is being used as a working place.

Protection fans attached to structures other t han scaffolds as defined in EN 12811‑1 are outside the scope of this European Standard.

This European Standard applies only to protection fan systems on to which construction debris may fall from 24 m or less.

This European Standard ensures resistance of protection fans for most blunt falling objects representing an impacting energy not exceeding 720 J.

NOTE This energy corresponds to a 3 kg object falling from 24 m.

This European Standard does not cover the requirements for the total area to be protected a gainst falling items.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Classification

4.1 Rules for classification

4.2 Snow loading classification

4.3 Shape classification

4.4 Width classification

5 Designation

6 Materials

6.1 General

6.2 Specific material requirements

7 General requirements

7.1 General

7.2 Dimensions

7.3 Components and elements

8 Requirements for design

8.1 Basic requirements

8.2 Structural design

8.3 Actions

8.4 Load combinations

8.5 Falling object impact loads

9 Testing to verify performance

9.1 Purpose of testing

9.2 General

9.3 General description of test components

9.4 Test

10 Assessment of compliance

11 Manuals

11.1 General

11.2 Content of a product manual

12 Marking

Bibliography

BS EN 12811-4:2013

Temporary works equipment - Protection fans for scaffolds. Performance requirements and product design

Current

Published:

31 Dec 2013