Jakob Webnet stainless steel netting has all the elements required for a commercial safety net to prevent falls from height.
The material is highly robust, non-corrosive, durable and almost limitless in terms of shape, height and length. Webnet is also highly transparent, meets large crowd-load requirements and can be made fully non-climbable.
But it’s not only about safety – project design and aesthetics also matter.
Here are some of the design features of Webnet:
- Lightweight aesthetic – Webnet has a light thin profile. When tensioned, it can be applied much like a flexible fabric membrane.
- Choice of design types – including Webnet with sleeves (standard), Webnet without sleeves for greater transparency and lightness, Webnet ID for adding mosaic-like imagery or logos and Webnet EVO which comes with complex wavelike shapes.
- Multiple orientation possibilities – e.g. vertical, horizontal, diagonal.
- Range of configurations – in terms of rope diameter (1mm-3mm), aperture-opening size (20mm-400mm), and aperture shape. Customisation is also possible.
- Differs from many standard mesh materials – an example is Chainlink, which is created from bent steel wires hooked together rather than using the woven technique of Webnet. Chainlink also has no tensile resistance and is subject to corrosion. For these reasons Chainlink, unlike Webnet, is usually restricted to fences.
Applications of Webnet stainless steel netting
Webnet is remarkably versatile, making it an ideal material for commercial projects where safety and design are important.
Playgrounds
Webnet can be used to make excellent safety nets for public playgrounds, especially as play equipment often comes with irregular shapes and forms. The material’s transparency enables kids to safely observe views from climbing platforms and allows parents to see where their children are.
Examples include:
- Inglis Park Sales Ring Playground – 40mm x 1.5mm Webnet mesh was used to form the non-climbable safety net barrier for this bespoke playground at Randwick in Sydney. A customised approach was used due to the unique design of the playground, which was created using an old equine sales ring structure as its base.
- Ian Potter Wild Play Garden – this innovative and educational playground in Sydney’s Centennial Park required a safety net for the climbing tower, which has an organic skeleton-like shape. 40mm Webnet was used to form a safety screen that wraps the tower, allowing kids to climb and explore in safety.
Stairways
Webnet is ideal for anti-fall safety nets on public-use stairways, such as the one at Royal Far West Children’s Charity at Manly in Sydney.
This is a spiral staircase, so it needed a barrier that would adapt to its twists and turns while attaching back to the edges of the four-storey atrium. Making this happen presented a serious challenge, as the corkscrew-like shape required of the barrier had never been attempted in Australia before.
But Webnet’s malleable fabric-like qualities combined with the engineering and design expertise of Tensile’s teams made the seemingly impossible possible. The result speaks for itself!
Bridges
Webnet is often used to form anti-throw screens and anti-fall barriers on bridges – such as at the Lachlan Line bridge in Sydney and Elizabeth Quay in Perth.
It can also be used to create fall nets under bridges, for example as at the Cornell University campus in the USA. A spate of tragic jumping incidents led the institution to install under-bridge safety nets formed from Jakob stainless steel Webnet. The nets are far less obtrusive or visible than the security fencing that was initially proposed.
To discuss the uses of Webnet stainless steel netting for your project, please get in touch with our team.
