Tool Tethers
Hammerhead Industries, manufacturer of Gear Keeper® industrial tool tethering systems, has announced its new TL1-3044 ANSI-Compliant ¾” Super Coil tool tethers for heavy tools and instruments. The TL1-3044 Personal Tool Tethers are strong, impact-absorbing tethers. Their nylon webbing construction, with integrated elastic, provides the shortest retraction length to minimize entanglement and low force extension to reduce fatigue during use. The ½” Super Coil is a flexible, low-profile coil system that provides up to an 8’ working area for tools like power drills, nail guns, power drivers, and other similar tools and instruments.
The tether’s coil system is fully enclosed in durable and ergonomically sound soft nylon with woven elastic webbing. Unlike competitive stiff, bungee-type elastic cables, Gear Keeper integrates its elastic into the tethers by weaving it into the webbing. This provides a host of benefits, including a longer useful life, a more gentle recoil and extension to avoid arm fatigue, and also serves to reduce drop-shock while minimizing the chances of bounce back when the tether is used with lighter items.
The new Fixed Loop ¾” Super Coil tether is just one of a new Gear Keeper family of ANSI-Compliant tethering products. The tether is rated for use as an anchored attachment to a fixed structure for tools up to 15 lbs. Easily attached to a fixed structural object by its aluminum, self-closing, and double-action locking carabiner with captive eye, anchoring the tether in this manner transfers the shock load produced by a dropped tool from the worker to the structure. The tether can also be used as a personal tool tether for tools up to 6 lbs.
The fixed loop tool attachment feature of the tether also permits tethering of tools that have no other attachment point. For example, when a larger loop is required to go around a large handle like a chain saw, the worker would just slip knot the fixed loop over the handle. It can be also used for looping to an anchor point or to a person and using the carabiner to attach the tools. In use, the tether’s short, retracted, or resting, length helps avoid entanglement when climbing or working in close quarters.
Following the ANSI guidelines, the new Gear Keeper models are high-visibility orange in color and feature an ANSI tag that shows the weight of the tools that are appropriate for the tether. All Gear Keeper products have a printed label with model number, serial number, and date of manufacture. The serial numbers allow the company to accurately track the product while the manufacturing date also allows the user to know when the product was manufactured if they track the product service life by period of use.
