Development of a rapid deployment safety fan that bolts onto existing building framework and is movable on rails between floors without the use of a crane significantly reducing operating costs.

The European construction industry accounts for over half of the fatal and major fall injuries
from height, slips and trips. In 2013/2014 period, fall injuries prejudiced the UK economy
approximately 1.5 million working days (ca. £800 million) (LFS 2013/2014). Falls mainly
arise from working on a scaffold or platform without guardrails, or with improperly attached
or no safety harness. Other causes include fragile roofs, ladders that are badly maintained,
positioned or secured, lack of edge protection, unprotected openings in buildings and
inadequate scaffolding. The cost of these accidents to the individual, the employer and to
society is often significant.
To try prevent falls, construction companies use safety nets that have costly and long
installation processes, requiring the use of cranes to install and move between floors. These
nets have to be drilled or permanently attached to the building often destroying building
concrete and other structures. Moreover, crane time is the most sought after and valuable
resource on a construction site, with the booking schedules reaching weeks in advance. There
is thus a ready and growing market in the UK, Europe and worldwide for innovative safety
net designs that minimise the use of cranes.
Rapid EPS is developing an innovative, extendable safety net system that bolts onto the
existing building concrete through self-tapping bolts and can be moved up and down on rails
between floors without the use of cranes. Our safety net system will be able to support falls of
up to 400kg in weight, four times more than existing products and has proved to significantly
reduce injuries from falls and completely eliminate fatalities compared to the use of works
attached by support harnesses. Further to this, the system can be retracted rapidly for
equipment transport or access to the floor as needed without lengthy dismantling or damage to
the building structure.