FallZone Playground Surfacing for Rotating Playground Equipment

Rotating playground equipment is designed to rotate at any angle while supporting the weight of its users. The equipment needs to meet certain safety requirements in order to stay safe, especially due to the high risk of ejection and falling. Since rotating playground equipment structures are considered high risk for injury, making sure you have the proper FallZone Safety Surfacing under and around the Fall-Zone of this type of playground equipment will help prevent injuries and will give it’s users peace of mind that they are protected if they are ejected or fall of this structure. Now lets take a look at some of the safety requirements for this type of playground equipment. 

There are two different categories of rotating equipment and they depend on the angle at which the axis is installed. Vertical rotating equipment is any kind of equipment that rotates on an axis that is more than 45 degrees from being horizontal. The size of the equipment is a major factor in the requirements that it needs to meet, any equipment that has a perimeter that is more than 20” away from the axis needs to have a circular platform. Any component of the equipment that extends beyond the outer perimeter needs to be designed to minimize the potential for serious injury when a child does fall off into the Fall-Zone area. All vertical rotating equipment needs to either have hand support or a sitting area that is concave enough to hold the children on the equipment to keep them from falling or flying off. Children can also get hurt or stuck if they can get their arms or heads underneath the equipment, and so following clearance regulations are another way in which you can make sure that the playground equipment is used safely along with the proper FallZone Safety Surfacing, like the FallZone Poured-in-Place playground safety system. 

Platforms on the rotating equipment that are flush against the protective FallZone Safety Surfacing of the playground cannot have any gap larger than 5/16” between itself and the FallZone Safety Surfacing. If a platform is not flush to the ground, then the clearance between the FallZone Protective Playground Safety Surfacing needs to be between 2.38” and 3.5” or it needs to be greater than 9”. If the clearance is between 3.5” and 9”, then the equipment will need protective skirting. There cannot be anything rigid hanging underneath the platform itself that could interfere with the movement of the playground equipment. 

Speed is also a factor of concern when incorporating vertical rotating playground equipment. Rotating elements that have a distance of 20” or less from the axis to the perimeter and any elements larger than 20” that has a Fall-Zone of nine feet do not need to have a speed limiting devices.

Rotating playground equipment that rotates on an axis that is 45 degrees or less than 45 degrees from being horizontal is considered to be horizontal rotating equipment and is less commonly included than vertical rotating equipment. Children under the age of five are more likely to get injured using this equipment, and it is recommended that they do not use it.

Horizontal rotating equipment that is designed for standing needs to have handrails for both mounting and for helping children maintain their balance. These elements need to meet the same requirements as any other hand grip or handrail on your playground. 

Now lets take a look at the Fall-Zone area for Rotating Playground Equipment. 

Fall-Zone Area For Rotating Playground Equipment 

Making sure that there is no other equipment within the fall-zone of any rotating elements is extremely important because of the very high risk of falling off of this equipment. No other piece of playground equipment should be within six feet of the rotating elements. Children can be quickly ejected from the playground structure while playing and it is imperative that you have the proper shock absorbing playground FallZone Safety Surfacing to protect children from these falls. 

For More Information On the Best Playground Safety Surface For Your Playground Equipment Contact us at fallzonesafetysurfacing.com or 1-888-808-1587

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