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Free Fall Heights and extent of Safety Surface

Sports Surfaces

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The depth and area of a safety surface is determined by the height of the play equipment it surounds. The higher the equipment, the deeper the depth and the greater the area needs to be.

To ensure the correct depth and area of a surface surounding play equipment, the Free Fall Height must be calculated.

The height of the equipment is known as the "Free Fall Height" or FFH.

FFH Giagram

	FFH 3.0m depth = 120mm extent = 2.50m
	FFH 2.6m depth = 100mm extent = 2.23m
	FFH 2.2m depth = 80mm extent = 1.96m
	FFH 1.8m depth = 50mm extent = 1.70m
	FFH 1.4m depth = 45mm extent = 1,50m
	FFH 1.1m depth = 30mm extent = 1.50m
	FFH 0.6m depth = 20mm extent = 1.50m

Static Play Equipment

Items with a FFH of 0.6m up to 1.5m should have 1.5m extent of safety surface. To calculate the surface extent for items with a FFH between 1.5m and 3.0m multiply the FFH by 0.667 and add 0.5m.

Swings

The limit of motion in each direction is the point reached when the swing has travelled through an arc of 60 °. This is calculated by 0.866 x distance from swing pivot to swing seat. The surface should extend 1.75m beyond this point. The width should be 1.75m for each swing or extend to the internal face of the supports, which ever is the least.