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TFI TSO-C172 Certified for Tie Down Straps!

12 July, 2012

TFI is proud to announce that it has been awarded TSO C-172 certification for air cargo tie-down straps. This makes TFI one of only three companies around the world to own such certification.

TSO-C172 has been a long time coming. The FAA and EASA have been working on the standard for many years now, however as the tie-down strap has always been viewed as an accessory to certified air cargo equipment like cargo nets and pallets, it was never a high priority project.

Indeed even now after the issuance of the certification, major aviation authorities like the FAA or EASA have not declared the use of certified straps mandatory, however the industry as a whole seems to welcome the development as they now have the option to purchase straps that pass the stringent standards set out in the TSO.

Until this standard was formalized the air cargo strap market was little, if at all, regulated. Most airlines requested that a standard strap have an ultimate load 5000 pounds and that was it. With the new standard there are a few key aspects that make these straps better and safer than their non-certified counterparts.

The first point is that the new straps need life limitations and strong evidence to prove that they will stay airworthy throughout their stated lifetime. What this often means is that the straps need to be overdesigned to take into account the natural degradation that occurs with all fabrics over time. In TFI’s case, we overdesign our straps significantly to meet this requirement.

The second critical requirement is for the strap to be equipped with a non-slip buckle. Many non-certified straps feature buckles that will suffer slippage during the transportation process, causing loosening when there is movement of the tied down load. This of course is a safety concern. TFI’s patented buckle has successfully passed the rigorous cyclical load testing of the standard.

Please contact us for more details of our certified tie-down strap range.