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US 12,654,044 B2Granted
Fall protection equipment connection status and control
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsJudd J. Perner, Ronald D. Jesme, Travis W. Rasmussen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques are described for monitoring and controlling fall protection equipment. For example, the techniques of this disclosure may be used to monitor the connection status of fall protection equipment, e.g., whether or not the fall protection equipment is connected to a support structure. The techniques of this disclosure may also be used to control the operation of the fall protection equipment based on the connection status.
Claims26
A fall protection assembly comprising:
- a first fall protection device comprising:
- a first lanyard bearing a first connector, the first connector comprising:
- a body that at least partially defines an area of attachment for connecting the first connector of the first fall protection device to at least one support structure;
- a moveable gate connected to the body and configured to move between an open position and a closed position, wherein the open position provides access to the area of attachment for connecting the first connector to the at least one support structure and the closed position prevents access to the area of attachment;
- an electromechanically-actuated lock that is actuatable between a locked condition and an unlocked condition, wherein when the lock is in the locked condition the lock impedes the moveable gate from moving to the open position and when the lock is in the unlocked condition the lock allows the moveable gate to move to the open position;
- and,
- a second fall protection device comprising a second lanyard bearing a second connector, the second fall protection device comprising at least one second computing device that is configured to wirelessly transmit information regarding whether the second connector of the second fall protection device is connected to the at least one support structure;
- wherein the first fall protection device comprises at least one first computing device that is configured to wirelessly receive the information from the at least one second computing device of the second fall protection device regarding whether the second connector of the second fall protection device is connected to the at least one support structure,
- and,
- wherein the at least one first computing device of the first fall protection device is configured to cause the electromechanically-actuated lock of the first fall protection device to be actuated between the locked condition and the unlocked condition based on the information that is wirelessly received from the at least one second computing device of the second fall protection device regarding whether the second connector of the second fall protection device is connected to the at least one support structure.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.