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The energy industry is integrating technology at the worksite to improve safety and productivity. However, the delivery of technology solutions entails challenges due to the unique environments of refineries, chemical plants and drill sites. United Safety has assembled a technology support team, comprised of field-experienced network and system engineers, dedicated to onsite delivery. The team, referred to as Technical Services, provides technology applications and digitizes workflows.
For more than seven years, United Safety has deployed a variety of technology solutions to the oil and gas sector. The company understands effective solutions need to overcome inconsistent Wi-Fi for accessing cloud servers. United Safety’s Technical Services has experienced this firsthand when installing integrated electronic confined space systems (TeQ Shield™ Guardian) and troubleshooting its automated in-plant equipment centers (A-IPEC™).
Another example of a technology solution is United Safety’s latest service, the TeQ Shield™ Tracker. The Tracker is a real-time location service (RTLS) capable of tracking assets and personnel to within one meter of accuracy. It is a scalable, cost-effective and versatile tracking system which can be deployed onsite without utilizing the client’s power and internet to improve safety and productivity.
RTLS’ base application is to create geofences and measure time spent in specific zones. This application can identify improvement opportunities in busing systems, support contact tracing and create productivity zones for time management studies. In addition, it can be deployed onsite to quicken muster response and establish a collision avoidance system for trucks and forklifts. Other applications include the management of unmanned equipment centers and defining crane exclusion / red zones. United Safety has successfully deployed this technology more than 50 times in the past 18 months.
One recent application was the deployment on a large-scale refinery turnaround. The event was 45 days and included tracking more than 2,000 contractors across two separate units during the outage. In addition, the client required a forklift and truck collision avoidance system using the same system. The challenges United Safety’s team faced included deploying the system without using power from the client’s facility, managing the tag charging and deployment systems, and creating an optimum system to switch from forklift avoidance and normal tracking to optimize the battery life and safety of the contractors on site.
United Safety’s Technical Services began with the power requirement systems. In order to track the tags, anchors were positioned around units in locations where triangulation could occur. However, power to the anchors was not available. United Safety’s engineers developed a battery system which could operate for three weeks between charges and operate indefinitely when connected to a solar charging station. The system was extremely stable and supported the anchors at a height of 12 feet which is required to optimize the system’s performance. Next, Technical Services focused on designing the collision avoidance system.
Utilizing a collision avoidance system requires tags looking for moving objects at a high rate. The avoidance system is set on the edge of the forklift to speed up system communication, provide effective alerts, and capture the speed of the moving object. Having a system which warns a user of a moving forklift needs to be instantaneous. For instance, a forklift moving at five miles per hour will travel about 73 feet in 10 seconds. The collision avoidance system is set at five second intervals to identify the moving forklift and alert the user. The forklift needs to be seen when it is 40 feet away to ensure the user’s safety. As such, the tags were switched to more active communication modes when in a forklift zone. United Safety’s Technical Services developed a switching program that converted the communication frequency of the tags when they were within a predefined distance from forklifts. The change in communication frequency met the needs of the location and improved battery life by a week during the event.
The challenges with tag management are that they need to be issued efficiently and be easily switched out for recharging. As the client was utilizing a collision avoidance system, the tags would consume power at a higher rate. During a standard RTLS deployment, tags are expected to last three to five weeks on a single charge. Tags used in a collision avoidance system may last three to five days. Swapping out and recharging 2,000 tags this often created a unique set of challenges for the team. United Safety’s Technical Services solved this with software and service solutions tailored to the client’s operation. After deploying the forklift switching system, the team also implemented a sleep system at the entry/exit locations. The tags were automatically put to sleep when they left the site, which doubled the tag battery life to four weeks on average, achieving a sustainable battery management program.
Technical Services also developed two critical service solutions for tag replacement for the client, one being a kiosk system which switched out tags in under seven seconds using bar codes. Users requiring a tag replacement were listed on a large screen in the lunch tents and could replace their badges at a table manned in each lunch area. Additionally, battery levels were monitored in the command center for every tag and if a tag was below 20 percent of its power, Technical Services used a mobile application, allowing a tag to be replaced in the field using cell phones to scan the bar codes. A rover was deployed daily to manage any low power tags in the field at the worksite.
In this example, United Safety’s team was able to deploy the system for a temporary application without requiring support services from the client. In addition, the team was able to develop innovative solutions to minimize the impact of the system on the users while improving the productivity and safety of the event. The cost savings to the client was more than $350,000 during the event in only the area surrounding the fabrication tent during the turnaround. In addition, the client had no forklift safety issues and was able to utilize the reporting to improve communication on productivity with the contractors.
United Safety’s ability to provide customized RTLS solutions extends to regular maintenance as well. The same tracking technology can be applied in the day-to-day management of breathing air onsite. While meeting with a remote refiner, the need for an unmanned breathing air equipment center was identified. It required the development of new and innovative digital and breathing air technologies to achieve this solution.
The client required air usage daily and had several requirements, including ease of use, air on demand in easily transported and safe systems, and accurate reporting and billing. Technical Services developed, tested, and installed a system which achieved this and is scalable for future growth.
The solution developed utilized a unique air system linked to a digital tracking system. The hardware was comprised of United Safety’s Air TreQ Blinder carts and a refill system connected to a centralized air bank. Blinder carts are small, lightweight, and do not require a CDL driver to transport, making them ideal for the client’s use case. In addition, custom trailers were created to ensure safe transport around the plant. For the refill system, Technical Services incorporated a proprietary air storage system to handle the air usage efficiently and a refill process which made connecting to the refill system easy and safe.
A digital TeQ Shield™ Tracker system was paired with the air delivery system to provide the check in/out and billing system. By using a tracking system, the Air TreQ Blinder Carts, air levels, and billing are managed digitally. The system notifies users when equipment is on rent too long, alerts United Safety offices when air refills are needed, and sends automated billing statements to the client. The digital system can also scale up to handle other equipment as the client sees growth in the future. The client has seen a cost savings of 30 percent over the previous manned center.
By listening to the client’s issues, United Safety was able to pair traditional breathing air equipment with new digital solutions to develop a new lower cost solution to a manned equipment center. The A-IPEC™ is a creative solution which lowers costs, liability, and improves billing transparency and equipment utilization on site.
United Safety’s Technical Services can craft customized solutions for its clients by listening to the requirements and applying a suite of technology, traditional safety and productivity. Recent client-driven technology solutions, such as TeQ Shield™ Tracker, Guardian™ and Hub™ have addressed immediate challenges safely and productively, laying the foundation for future technology designs.
For more information, please contact United Safety at 1-877-805-5155 or visit unitedsafety.net.
