Ferno Australia, a world leader in the design and manufacture of emergency, rescue and height safety equipment, has been awarded accreditation for AS/NZS4488.1Industrial Rope Access Systems – Specifications (1997). This permits Ferno to test ascenders, descenders and rope grabs under Australia’s accreditation agency, National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA), which a world-renowned testing authority.
This new accreditation can be used in combination with Ferno’s existing AS/NZS1891.1 received in 2007 for testing of industrial safety harnesses, energy absorbing lanyards and pole straps.
The accreditation, which will be audited annually, places Ferno Australia’s Perth manufacturing plant as one of only six testing laboratories accredited by NATA to conduct testing on AS1991.1 in Australia and the only one in Western Australia.
Growing demand for Ferno’s height safety products among industries such as construction, mining, utilities and rescue meant that Ferno needed to look internally to streamline design and testing processes so the company could scale up manufacturing capacity and fast-track distribution while maintaining consistency of product quality and reliability.
Ferno Australia’s Western Australian Research and Development Manager Karen Jury said, “The NATA accreditation is formal recognition of Ferno’s competent testing facilities and staff who are experts across quality, technical and testing processes. The laboratories, management systems and staff have been assessed by independent experts in process, and the company has passed a significant milestone.”
“This should give assurance to customers that our laboratories, and our products, meet stringent conditions through reliable testing, inspection, measurement and calibration,” Ms Jury said.
“The benefit for customers is that we can develop and certify our products to customer requirements much quicker than we have in the past. Because we can observe how the products react in testing this gives us a better idea of how to improve problem areas and make changes quickly so that we can re-test. It also cuts down on costs involved in certification. There is no freight cost and the cost of testing at our own facility is much less than sending samples to external testing bodies. This reduces development costs for both Ferno which we can pass on to our customers,” she said.
The NATA testing involved subjecting Ferno’s harnesses, energy absorbing lanyards, pole straps, decenders and rope grabs to static and dynamic testing as set out in the relevant NATA standard and appendices. Ferno’s Dynamic Testing Tower was calibrated in-house by Ferno staff under the direction of NATA and the master rulers, weighing scales, 100kg Test Dummy, 100kg Mass, Testing Cylinders, electronic protractor, dial gauge and Static test bed were calibrated by external calibration authorities. All equipment used for NATA testing is carefully quarantined and is not used for any other purpose.
About Ferno Australia
Ferno Australia has been designing and creating emergency, rescue and safety equipment for over 35 years and today leads the development, manufacture and distribution of a complete line of ‘mission critical’ products for the emergency, rescue, height safety, rock climbing and mortuary industries. Many products are now the industry standard for their application, owing to their unmatched quality, reliability and safety record.
With Ferno’s height safety softgoods manufacturing bases in Melbourne and Perth and emergency and rescue manufacturing in Brisbane, Ferno Australia has pioneered innovations in patient transfer equipment including highly acclaimed roll in / roll out ambulance stretchers and the award winning Arachnipod™ Total Edge Management System.
Through innovative R&D, local manufacturing and acquisition activity Ferno has grown into a multi-million dollar operation. From their beginnings as a supplier of ambulance stretchers, Ferno Australia now develops, manufactures and distributes more than 10,000 products which address safety and major disaster response requirements.
www.ferno.com.au
About NATA
The National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) is Australia's national laboratory accreditation authority. NATA accreditation recognises and promotes facilities competent in specific types of testing, measurement, inspection and calibration. NATA accreditation provides a means of determining, recognising and promoting the competence of facilities to perform specific types of testing, measurement, inspection and calibration.
www.nata.asn.au
ENDS
For further information contact:
Kelly Holman
Marketing Coordinator
Ferno Australia
07 3025 5055
kholman@ferno.com.au