June is National Safety Month:
Start by Understanding the Situation
By: Jake Vernon (Product Specialist – Audible & Visual Signaling)
June is National Safety Month, so it is an ideal time to review best practices for selecting audible and visual alarm or signaling equipment to increase safety. Safety starts with understanding the situation. To reduce safety risks in many work environments, the proper signaling equipment is essential to communicating changes in real time clearly and effectively. The different signaling events, discussed below, are: Indication events, Warning events, and Alarm events. Pfannenberg is a leading provider of equipment for all types of audible and visual alarm solutions.
INDICATION
Signaling equipment for indication events
alert users in a facility of the status of a certain machine. For instance, a signaling device may be programmed to signal whether there are or are not pellets in a plastic injection moulding machine. Pfannenberg solutions include Pfannenberg INTENSE BR 50 tower lights / stacklights and color changing PYRA LED lights.
WARNING
For situations when employees or other people at a facility may be in the vicinity of a machine that carries inherent risk, warning signaling events communicate when safety is compromised. For instance, an overhead crane may carry steel, or a moving fork lift truck may move bulk material on a site. Warning signaling events alert people when it is dangerous to approach a specific area on site. These can be either audible or visual signals. Pfannenberg offers industry-leading solutions including Color changing PYRA LED lights and PATROL Series sounder devices.
ALARM
In work environments with the potential for life-threatening situations, alarms signal that immediate evacuation is necessary to prevent potentially fatal safety issues. When those at a facility are not alerted, the results can be catastrophic. For instance, a cryogenic freezing system in a poultry processing facility released liquid nitrogen that killed six people, required 12 to be hospitalized, and led to the evacuation of 130 others. Better signaling technology could help reduce the risk of such disastrous consequences. Common industry applications for alarm signaling includes cold storage refrigeration (detecting trace amounts of refrigeration gas such as ammonia), wastewater facilities (where chlorine is added to water in preparation to return it to the water cycle), or at a location in the event of serious weather event. Combined audible and visual alarms are essential for protecting against risk. Pfannenberg solutions include PATROL and PYRA combination devices with lights and sound.
