Reid Lifting launches BS8610 compliant T-Davit for rope access safety market

Reid’s certified T-Davit is a fully integrated davit and socket combination that has not only been accredited to all the best practice standards, including IRATA, it is, to the best of Reid’s knowledge, the only one to have done so as a single proprietary system all the way from anchor point to fixings.

Managing director, Simon Luke says, “BS8610 might not be mandatory but it is certainly widely accepted as best practice in the rope access market. We’re seeing an increasing number of requests for compliance which is good news. In response to that though, we are also hearing that a number of other manufacturers are claiming compliance, but without evidence third party witness testing – and that is the important distinction.

“If we are going to persuade architects and building facilities managers to switch to davits from conventional building maintenance units (BMUs) and maximise the savings they offer, then they have to have absolute confidence in the safety and security of the solution. As far as Reid is concerned, anything less than third party, witness tested approval of the whole system is just not good enough.”

Based on the existing market leading T-Davit solution, already used worldwide for goods, personnel lifting and fall protection applications, the accredited davit itself is a lightweight, two-piece column and beam design. That makes it easy to transport and move around on rooftops and two people can assemble it in minutes, without tools and with minimal manual handling. 

It is designed to be placed in Reid’s top mount or side mount steel sockets and installed on concrete or fixed directly to steelwork to provide a complete BS8610 certified anchor system.

The Reid T-Davit has been designed with a 65mm high tensile aluminium kingpin to meet the stringent requirements of BS8610 and incorporates two patented bearings which mean it can be rotated 360 degrees even when it is fully loaded to optimise safety when setting up and attaching users. It is suitable for one user for rope access and one user attached to the elevated anchor point for fall protection during rescue or transitioning.

To provide the ultimate reassurance on safety and to minimise risk, Reid has designed the T-Davit with no welded elements, which eliminates the potential for weld fatigue and catastrophic failure. It also comes with an integral safety tether securing the davit to the socket, ensuring that it can never be removed without two deliberate and consecutive actions, another requirement of BS8610.