Precision Ladders is a premier manufacturer of custom aluminum ladders, disappearing stairways and fixed stairs, guard rails, and roof access systems for commercial, industrial, and residential applications. They primarily provide code compliant products to the commercial construction industry. Recently, Precision decided to develop a proprietary ladder “safety post”, which aids a ladder climber once they reach an opening in the roof.

A ladder safety post is beneficial for someone transitioning from the top of an installed ladder through an open roof hatch or other opening. With the obvious need to close the roof hatch, when not in use, this requires the application of a collapsible safety post. In these situations, Precision Ladders had been relying on a competitor’s off the shelf product. It was expensive and, more importantly, not Precision’s own product. Therefore, Precision needed an engineered solution to provide a simplified but elegant and cost effective solution.

They approached Protomet with this challenge and, within a few days of the initial discussion, we were discussing various design options. Working with Precision’s applications engineers, Protomet designed various options and we quickly identified a concept that we wanted to prototype. Within a couple of weeks, Protomet manufactured the first prototype and it was tested. A few minor tweaks were incorporated to achieve the final design as shown in Figure 1. The red telescoping handle fully retracts to allow for shutting the roof hatch. A simple low friction design provides an elegant and cost effective solution. Figure 2 depicts the roof side view as the worker approaches the roof hatch. Precision is now offering this new product in these applications. For every Extend-A-Rail purchased from Protomet, Precision saves 45% compared to their previous cost. This allows them to offer this solution at a more competitive price to their clients while maintaining an acceptable profit margin.

Precision Ladders has this to say about working with Protomet… “Working with Protomet has been a great experience. Their engineers provided an elegantly simple solution that incorporated ‘design for manufacturing’. They really understand the manufacturing process resulting in an optimized and cost effective design. We have more new product ideas on the way and we will continue to work with Protomet to make these a reality…”

Andrew Combs, National Sales Manager
Precision Ladders, LLC
www.precisionladders.com