When it comes to industrial operations, we know that efficiency and productivity are paramount, but worker safety should remain a constant concern. Too often, however, the quest for streamlined processes, driven primarily by process engineers, overshadows the critical need for safety integration. This can leave safety measures such as assessments or hazard mitigation efforts isolated – creating a number of challenges for safety managers and workers alike.
Beyond these challenges, industrial sites constantly face other concerns when it comes to their processes – including integration, deployment options, and the ongoing need for field maintenance. All these factors create an environment that features less-than-ideal device placements as well as manual safety check-ins and response protocols.
The result? Delays in response time and extended exposure of workers to potential risks.
It’s a problem that industrial sites across the world face and ensuring the safety of workers should always be paramount.
The Right Tools for the Job
However, it doesn’t have to be like that. Today, Industrial Scientific offers multiple solutions that can be effortlessly deployed, sound alarms that immediately alert workers in the area, and simultaneously relay crucial readings – including hazards present, gas levels, and worker locations – to safety managers or first responders. With solutions like this, safety managers can rest assured that everyone is following safety protocols by automating hazard protocols and reducing response times when an incident does occur.
These tools can include everything from area monitors like the Radius BZ1, an area gas monitor that allows users to control and monitor up to seven hazards across a site while being able to share alarms to ensure the right level of response when workers are exposed to those dangers, to live monitoring software like iNet Now, which allows you to gain complete control over your equipment, data, and worker behaviors while reducing risk and optimizing operations through critical insights from iNet Control.
At the heart of these solutions is the RGX Gateway, an intrinsically safe transfer point of real-time information. With this device, data is easily transferred from the monitors you have in the field from the RGX to your local monitoring or safety process system via Modbus, allowing you to focus on multiple hazards at once. It can also be transferred from the RGX to iNet Now, which provides real-time text and email alerts for gas hazards, panic, and man-down situations on a computer or mobile device – allowing safety personnel to see and respond to incidents as they happen.
How Automating Hazard Awareness is like Building a Security System
Imagine a security system in your home. It’s designed to protect both your property and loved ones by detecting intruders and alerting you to potential threats. If an intruder opens a window with a specific sensor, for example, the sensor notifies the the security system, which then sets off a chain reaction with your pre-determined safety protocols – activating alarms, lights, and sirens, or even notifying safety services and the police.
If we’re breaking that down in an industrial setting, a gas hazard is like an intruder opening a window or door where sensors and monitors like the Radius BZ1 are placed. This device, which is part of a peer-to-peer network, sends a signal to the RGX Gateway, or your home security system in this example. The RGX Gateway then functions like a home security’s control panel and sets your safety protocols into motion. This can look like anything from turning on alarms or turning off specific equipment, such as a generator when explosive gas is present or turning off ventilation to prevent intake into a populated building or area. It also notifies your safety teams, much like a home security system would notify the police of a break-in.
This enhanced safety not only protects your on-site personnel but also safeguards critical equipment and assets. It's the ultimate solution to automate hazard awareness and is much like a dedicated security system watching over your site that’s always ready to respond to hazards.
By automating your hazard awareness and safety protocols, your workers can focus on the job at hand, improving their safety and productivity – and management can rest assured that everyone goes home safe and that no alert goes unnoticed.
Interested in learning more about the RGX Gateway's relay control and Modbus capabilities? Talk to an expert to find out if it's right for you.
