• Introduction
• Preparing
  for Use
• Install/
  Disassembly
• Use of
  Staging
• Key Components
• Topic Glossary

Key Components: Considerations

Component 1. Anchorages and Attachments

Anchorages (or Overhead Supports)

Check connections between overhead supports and suspension assemblies.

Photo courtesy of OSHA.

A staging system's capacity is greatly affected by the condition of the overhead supports (or anchorages), as well as the type of connection(s) to be made between the supports and suspension wire rope assemblies.

Based on information from the shipyard owner, the Qualified Person must determine the condition of a vessel's structural components, including those to which the staging will be attached. This information shall then be used to calculate both the weight of the staging itself and the loads to be placed on it [29 CFR Part 1915.71(h)(1)].

Attachments

The types of overhead supports available in a vessel dictate the type of attachment to be made between the staging suspension cables and the structure.

A beam clamp, which positively engages an overhead structural member, is preferable to either a “pork chop” or S-hook system.

Both pork chops and S-hooks depend heavily on downward and inward forces of the scaffold itself to prevent detachment. When pork chops or S-hooks are used, the wire ropes used in suspending this type of scaffold will necessarily be out-of-plumb to prevent uplift and/or displacement of the attachments. To maintain this non-vertical condition, installation crews should construct the bottom-most platform level of the staging first. They should then hang the suspension cables in a manner that exerts an inward tension to the overhead attachments. Both the structural supports and the wire rope must be able to sustain additional loads imposed by these eccentric forces.

Beam clamp.

Pork chop

S-hook

 

Photos courtesy of VSRA.

Definitions:

• What is a pork chop?
• What is an S-hook?

More information:

• View and/or print Illustration 5 of a pork chop for marine hanging staging.
• View and/or print Illustration 6 of an S-hook for marine hanging staging.
• View and/or print Illustration 7 of an S-hook attachment detail.