POWER HONOURTaiwan OEM / ODM
United States & Canada

Fall Protection Hardware Manufacturer for the US and Canada

Connectors, harness hardware, lifeline components and rigging hardware made in Taiwan for North American brands, importers and distributors — built to the drawing and test requirements your market sets.

Fall protection hardware used in the United States falls under OSHA regulations — 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M for construction, and 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D with 1910.140 for general industry — and in practice is designed and tested to the voluntary ANSI/ASSP Z359 family of standards. Canadian workplaces fall under federal, provincial or territorial occupational health and safety regulations, which reference the CSA Z259 series instead. Power Honour is a Taiwan OEM/ODM manufacturer experienced in manufacturing to ANSI/ASSP Z359: tell us the markets and standards, and we manufacture to your drawing and test requirements, with certification testing by the accredited body you select.

The US framework

In the United States the law and the product standard are separate documents. OSHA's regulations tell an employer what a system must achieve in use; consensus standards tell a manufacturer how the hardware must be built, tested and marked.

Federal regulation

OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M

Fall protection in construction: the duty to provide it (1926.501), the criteria for fall protection systems including personal fall arrest (1926.502), and training (1926.503). The general trigger in construction is 6 feet above a lower level.

Federal regulation

OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D and 1910.140

General industry. Subpart D, Walking-Working Surfaces, sets the duty to protect workers — at 4 feet for unprotected sides and edges under 1910.28(b)(1)(i). Section 1910.140, in Subpart I, sets the performance, care and use criteria for personal fall protection systems and their components.

Voluntary standard

ANSI/ASSP Z359 Fall Protection Code

The consensus standards that define how the equipment is designed, tested and marked: Z359.11 for full body harnesses, Z359.12 for connecting components, Z359.14 for self-retracting devices and Z359.18 for anchorage connectors, with Z359.1 tying the family together. OSHA does not require Z359 by name; specifiers, contracts and insurers commonly do.

Voluntary standard

ASME B30.26 Rigging Hardware

Covers the construction, installation, operation, inspection and maintenance of detachable rigging hardware used for load handling — shackles, links, rings, swivels, turnbuckles, eyebolts, hoist rings, wire rope clips, wedge sockets and rigging blocks. It governs rigging and lifting, not personal fall protection.

Voluntary standard

ANSI/ISEA 121 Dropped Object Prevention

Sets minimum design, performance, testing and labelling requirements for equipment that stops tools and objects falling from height, in four categories: anchor attachments, tool attachments, tool tethers and containers. Much of it is small load-rated metal — quick rings, swivels and connectors.

OSHA does not approve, certify or endorse products. A product can meet the criteria of a named OSHA paragraph, or be tested to a named edition of ANSI/ASSP Z359 by a named laboratory; our guide to OSHA and ANSI Z359 sets out the figures behind each.

The Canadian framework

Canada builds its fall protection requirements around the CSA Z259 series rather than ANSI/ASSP Z359, and regulates workplaces through several jurisdictions rather than one.

Product standards
The CSA Z259 series

Canada’s fall protection standards cover the same families of equipment as Z359 — among them Z259.10 for full body harnesses, Z259.12 for connecting components and Z259.2.2 for self-retracting devices — alongside Z259.16 for the design of active fall-protection systems and Z259.17 for their selection and use.

Regulation
Referenced by OHS regulations

Occupational health and safety is regulated federally for federally regulated workplaces, through the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, and provincially or territorially for everyone else. Those regulations reference CSA Z259 standards for fall protection equipment, often by edition, and the detail differs from one jurisdiction to the next.

Labelling
English and French

Plan for markings, packaging and instructions in both English and French. Quebec’s Charter of the French Language requires French on product inscriptions, packaging and accompanying documents such as instructions for products sold there, and the federal Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act sets bilingual rules for prepackaged consumer goods. Confirm what applies to your product with counsel before artwork is final.

What is the same, and what differs

The same

  • Both families cover the same kinds of equipment: harnesses, connecting components, self-retracting devices, energy absorbers and lanyards, and anchorage connectors.
  • Both specify strength testing, marking and instructions for use, and both reward the same manufacturing discipline — forged load paths, controlled heat treatment, lot traceability.
  • A well-engineered connector can often be designed to satisfy both, if both are named at the design stage.

Different

  • Classification, test methods and pass criteria differ, so a result under one standard does not transfer automatically to the other.
  • Marking content and language differ, and Canadian labelling usually needs French as well as English.
  • US law sets the use requirements through OSHA and leaves the product standard voluntary; Canadian regulations reference the CSA Z259 standards themselves, often by edition.

Our comparison of CSA Z259 and ANSI Z359 works through the differences standard by standard.

Where we stand: our manufacturing experience covers ANSI/ASSP Z359, CE EN standards, UIAA and PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425, under an ISO 9001 quality system. CSA Z259, ASME B30.26, ANSI/ISEA 121 and ASTM A952 are set out on this page as market requirements, so you can plan against them. Tell us the markets and standards; we manufacture to your drawing and test requirements, with certification testing by the accredited body you select.
Importing

Bringing Taiwan-made hardware into North America

Country-of-origin marking

US law requires imported articles to be marked with the English name of their country of origin — for our parts, Taiwan — as legibly, indelibly and permanently as the article allows, or on the container where the article itself is excepted. Canada requires origin marking for a defined list of goods; your customs broker can confirm whether a given part is on it.

Landed cost and tariffs

Taiwan-origin goods are outside the Section 301 duties that apply to goods of Chinese origin, but other US tariff measures can apply to them — Section 232 measures on steel, aluminium and derivative products among them — and those measures change often. We give no rates here; confirm the current position with a licensed customs broker and use our landed-cost guide to build the full number.

Common Questions

Is ANSI/ASSP Z359 mandatory in the United States?
No. ANSI/ASSP Z359 is a voluntary consensus standard; the enforceable requirements are OSHA’s regulations, 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M for construction and 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D and 1910.140 for general industry. In practice Z359 behaves like a requirement, because specifiers, general contractors and insurers write it into contracts and it is the benchmark a product is judged against after an incident.
Does OSHA approve or certify fall protection equipment?
No. OSHA has stated repeatedly in its letters of interpretation that it does not approve or endorse products. A manufacturer can say a product meets the criteria of a named OSHA paragraph, or that it was tested to a named edition of ANSI/ASSP Z359 by a named laboratory, but “OSHA approved” and “OSHA certified” describe something that does not exist.
Can one product be sold in both the US and Canada?
Often, if both markets are designed in from the start. The product has to be tested and marked against ANSI/ASSP Z359 for the US and the relevant CSA Z259 standard for Canada, and Canadian labelling usually needs French as well as English. Naming both standards on the drawing costs far less than re-engineering a part that was built for one market only.
Can you manufacture hardware for the Canadian market?
Yes, to the requirements you specify. Our manufacturing experience covers ANSI/ASSP Z359, CE EN standards, UIAA and PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425, under an ISO 9001 quality system. For Canada, tell us the CSA Z259 standard and edition you need; we manufacture to your drawing and test requirements, and certification testing is carried out by the accredited body you select.
Which US standards cover rigging hardware and lifting components?
ASME B30.26 covers the construction, installation, operation, inspection and maintenance of detachable rigging hardware such as shackles, links, rings, swivels, turnbuckles and wire rope clips. For forged Grade 80 and Grade 100 lifting components used with alloy chain slings, ASTM A952 is the product specification commonly referenced. Tell us which applies; we manufacture to the specification and test requirements you set.
What does ANSI/ISEA 121 cover?
ANSI/ISEA 121 is the US voluntary standard for dropped object prevention. It sets minimum design, performance, testing and labelling requirements for anchor attachments, tool attachments, tool tethers and containers used to stop tools and objects falling from height. It does not tell an employer what to tether; it tells a manufacturer how tethering equipment must perform.

Name the standard, send the drawing

Tell us whether the part is for the US, Canada or both, the standards and editions it must meet and the claims you plan to print. We will come back with the geometry, material and process route that can support them, and the test evidence your certification body will want to see.