There has been some confusion over the specification of anchors for rope access. Many have referred to EN 795 Class A1, whose minimum structural requirement from 2012 has been 12kN (in the direction of applied load). BS 7985 the Code of Practice for Rope Access requires a support capacity minimum of 15kN (in the direction of applied load), along with a suggestion that two anchors can be used to provide this. Additionally the Rope Access code requires two separate support points, one for the suspension line the other for the safety line.
The problem arises because of the different way that the factors of safety have been considered, FOS of 2 for EN 795, and FOS of 2.5 for Rope Access. This is further explained or justified by the Rope Access need for additional support for potential rescue. Further Standards work is in hand regarding this.
In the interim, Higher Safety advice would be to specify a minimum of two anchors with a structural capacity of 15kN for Rope Access applications. Where this cannot be achieved, two anchors with a structural capacity of 12kN (EN 795) would suffice, as long as they are equally loaded and sufficiently far apart not to interfere. Both safety line and suspension line must equally load these anchors in use.
More information on this is available from Higher Saftey
