Scaffolding, also known as scaffold or staging, is an impermanent construction used to provide sustenance to a work crew and materials to help in the erection, upkeep and mending of structures, bridges and all other man-made constructions. Scaffolds are extensively used on site to get access to altitudes and parts that would be otherwise hard to get to. Hazardous scaffolding has the potential to result in demise or serious accidents. Another major use of scaffolding is in modified methods for formwork and shoring, concert stages, grandstand seating, access/viewing towers, ski ramps and art projects.
There are five main types of scaffolding today. These are Tube and Coupler (fitting) components, manufactured segmental system scaffold apparatuses, H-frame / facade modular system scaffolds, timber scaffolds and bamboo scaffolds.
Each type is made from numerous components which every so often include:
• A base plate or jack: It acts as the scaffold’s load-bearing base.
• The upright component with its connector joins.
• The ledger: The horizontal brace.
• The transom: It is a horizontal load-bearing component which helps to hold the batten or the decking unit.
• The brace diagonal.
• Cross-section bracing component
• The batten or the board decking component: On which the working platform is made.
• The coupler: A fitting which joins components together.
• The scaffold tie: It is used to tie in the scaffold to structures.
• The Brackets: It is used to extend the width of working platforms.
Particular machinery used to support in their usage as a provisional edifice often comprises of heavy-duty weight-bearing transoms, ladders or stairway units for the ingress and egress of the scaffold, beams ladder/unit types used to span obstacles and rubbish chutes used to eliminate undesirable constituents from the scaffold or construction development.
The European Standard, BS EN 12811-1, stipulates performance necessities and procedures of physical and universal design for access and working scaffolds. Requirements specified are for scaffold constructions that depend on the adjacent erections for steadiness.