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Know a reliable safety equipment and services provider? It’s a question often asked these days, particularly in the Gulf Coast industrial market. As margins tighten, many companies are proactively moving from Capital expenditures to Operating expenses business models. Instead of purchasing new gas detection equipment—and having to constantly upgrade it—companies are opting for flexible agreements covering equipment rental, service, and maintenance.
The problem is, it can be hard to find a safety partner that checks all the right boxes. According to recent marketplace research, most companies are unimpressed with the level of service they receive from their safety equipment providers.1 Perceiving a limited number of options, they tend to work with a small handful of companies who may not be all that familiar with the equipment they provide.2 Customer service can leave a lot to be desired.3 Support is often limited to sales.4 Addressing technical or logistic concerns can take days.5
Between turnarounds and long-term equipment needs, some plants must also contend with a wide range of volatile compounds and safety risks. That means having to deal with lots of contractors and vendors, with all the attendant equipment management challenges, like re-calibration, maintenance, and inventory tracking.
Managing vendors can become a job in itself, forcing project managers to devote precious time to vendor management. The good news is there’s a solution in plain sight, where it’s been hiding for a long time.
The answer is right under your respirator
Dräger has been a leader in safety for more than a century. The term “Drägerman,” one of marketing’s earliest examples of a trademark gone mainstream, is still used today in the mining industry as a synonym for “rescuer.”6
But the company’s expertise isn’t limited to underground applications. Dräger equipment is currently used in firefighting, law-enforcement, medicine, aerospace, and manufacturing. Yet strangely, few in the chemical and petrochemical industries are aware that the company has a Rental Safety & Services (RSS) division with solutions tailored to plant turnarounds (TARs).
Dräger manufactures some of the most technologically advanced—and comfortable—safety equipment in the world, with a great depth and breadth of support.
Everything from eyewash stations to onsite safety shops, the Dräger RSS offering includes:
• Area monitoring and portable gas detection
• Modular gas and vapor analysis
• Confined space video monitoring
• Respiratory protection (masks, escape hoods, SCBAs)
• Manufacturer-certified, Grade D breathing air
• Fall protection (tripods, harnesses, ladders)
• Communication equipment
• Lighting and ventilation
• Personal protection equipment (PPE)
• Safety staffing and rescue teams
• Inventory management and on-site safety shop
This customizable portfolio of on-site safety services is designed to reduce downtime, mitigate risk, and lower long-term costs. This leaves plant operators and managers free to concentrate on what’s important, like keeping TARs and other large-scale projects on budget and on track.
Innovations in equipment management
Dräger has been particularly proactive when it comes to listening and responding to the unique needs of its customers. Take inventory management, for example. A frequent concern is the ability to accurately track equipment status. This inspired Dräger to develop and implement a Rental Robot inventory management system.
Used in tandem with its rental solutions, the Rental Robot system features secure lockers from which authorized users can check out fully charged and calibrated equipment at the beginning of each shift. An intuitive interface documents all releases and returns, what equipment is being used by whom, and for how long. If equipment is damaged, the user reports it as defective at the terminal and a technician is alerted. No one else is allowed to use that equipment until it is replaced or repaired.
Fully automated, Rental Robot not only can reduce labor costs, but it also keeps track of the devices and their condition, helping to minimize equipment loss and risk.
Dispensing confidence and peace of mind
Dräger also pays close attention to equipment trends, always looking for efficiencies and staying responsive to current challenges. As COVID-19 rears its head yet again, Dräger has just completed beta testing an automated vending machine for dispensing PPE as an enhanced add-on to its existing Rental Robot offering.
In addition to further reducing administrative costs, the PPE vending machines eliminate the need for workers to enter the safety shop. The machine can be configured to accommodate a wide variety of personal protection equipment – everything from gloves to ear plugs.
Dräger can also provide an on-site safety shop, with staffing structured around the customer’s needs. These bespoke teams consist of on-site technicians, project managers, rescue teams, and other professional on a short- or long-term basis.
Case study: Tracking and maintaining safety equipment
St. Charles Operations (SCO) is a 2,000-acre integrated petrochemical manufacturing complex owned by Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. With an exemplary safety record, the company has been an OSHA Star Site for over 20 years.
Due to a large contractor volume and multiple gas detection applications, equipment management had become a major challenge. Production units required a wide variety of meters for portable gas detection, confined space entry, and measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), resulting in numerous equipment brands and vendors. Devices were constantly getting lost or broken. Many devices needed to be sent off-site for repairs, resulting in downtime.
To streamline its operations, SCO decided to work with Dräger for both products and safety services. To address accountability, Dräger installed its Rental Robot, X-dock®, X-dock® calibration stations, X-am® 5600 and X-am® 8000 with IR EX, O2, CO Plus and PID sensors configurations. An on-site Total Care Service Agreement was implemented for key units.
This solution dramatically reduced the number of broken and lost devices, along with the amount of money and time spent on equipment management. Bump testing and calibration was consistent across all monitors within the unit, allowing compliance records to be easily stored and retrieved.
“Working with the Dräger team is night and day compared to the vendors we’ve used in the past. Six other SCO units have since incorporated Dräger products and services.” – Shane Cantrelle, Activity Coordinator, Dow SCO
Case study: Ultimately, it’s all about customer service
During TARs, efficiencies and responsive customer service can really pay off. While many in the chemical and petrochemical industries aren’t aware of the breadth of what Dräger offers, the company is known for its customer service.
In 2017, a well-known manufacturer of industrial and specialty chemicals, selected Dräger based on Draeger’s solutions for customer service, equipment loss, pricing, billing, and delivery.
Dräger implemented a long-term rental and service agreement that included portable gas detection, respiratory protection, breathing air-supply devices, and the new X-pid® multi-gas measurement devices. Once the program was rolled into the company’s TAR activities, the company was pleased with the results.
Subsequently, Dräger ended up supplying all aspects of the company’s 2019 spring TAR. This included a safety trailer with gas detection devices, PPE, radios, breathing air supply devices, respiratory protection equipment, and its innovative equipment management system. The TAR was successful, and the customer was highly impressed with Dräger’s rental software program.
“One of the key advantages of working with Dräger is, by far, is their exceptional customer service. Also, we are very pleased with the quality of their products. They continue to operate without any issue or hiccups.” – Corporate Occupational Safety Lead for major chemical manufacturer
Case study: Simple solutions for complex monitoring
Sometimes the sheer range of volatile compounds can create complex scenarios for equipment calibration and cross-sensitivity issues. For example, one of Louisiana’s largest petrochemical facilities manufactures over 50 different intermediate and specialty chemical products, such as chlorine and polyethylene. In this example, atmospheric monitoring is critical to protecting the facility, environment, and personnel.
Similar to Dow SCO, this plant had employed numerous gas detectors from numerous manufacturers throughout the plant, measuring lower explosive limits (LEL), oxygen (O2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene (C6H6) and butadiene (C4H6).
This required multiple bump and calibration stations throughout the facility, leading to burdensome tasks for service technicians and trainers. Moreover, the substantial amount of hydrogen throughout the plant triggered the CO sensors, which were cross sensitive to the H2 gas, resulting in inaccurate measurements.
Dräger presented a solution to their 23 production units, which included Dräger Rental Robots, X-dock® and X-am® 8000s with a Total Care Service Agreement, which covers preventive care, inspection and maintenance.
The Dräger X-am® 8000 detects toxic and flammable gases as well as vapors and O2 simultaneously, while its innovative signaling design and handy assistant functions enhance safety throughout the monitoring process. The multi-gas detection devices were equipped with H2 sensors, O2 sensors, CO+ sensors that correct for H2 (solving the cross-sensitivity problem), and infrared sensors to measure LELs in inert atmospheres. Featuring a PID sensor, it also detects benzene and VOCs at parts-per-million levels, which previously required complex calculations to accomplish.
During implementation, Drager’s Rental and Safety Services on-site staff trained the facilities’ service technicians and users on necessary aspects to incorporate the products seamlessly. Pleased by the results, the plant has made the Dräger X-am® 8000 the monitor of choice for every production unit.
“The value Dräger brought to the table is immeasurable. They consolidated the majority of our gas detectors down to one monitor within each production unit.” – Plant EH&S Specialist
A company that lives and breathes safety
While Dräger is known for its respiratory protection and gas detection, the fundamental focus of these offerings is safety. That encompasses more than just a vast portfolio of products. Dräger Rental & Safety Services provide robust support and custom solutions for helping customers reduce risk, lower long-term costs, and safely accelerate the completion of TARs and other large-scale projects.
For more information, visit www.draeger.com.
Sources:
1. Pennebaker, VOC Marketplace Research Report, June 4, 2021.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6. Schmidt, Donna. “A Safer Tomorrow.” Coal Age, December 15, 2014; https://www.coalage.com/features/a-safer-tomorrow/