Life Alert in a Plant and Industry
Saturday, October 03, 2009
I still recall when I was a process engineer working in a refinery plant, there are some operator(s) working alone in a small plant and he sits in a small control room. Similar scenario for a boilerman who normally operates alone in the boiler house on his shifts. This is a normal situation in a small plant(s) and I sometimes imagine what happen if suddenly something happen to this fellows? If suddenly they are sick and/or get a heart attack, what will happen to the guy and the plant/boiler or other units he is operating? Who will know what is happening at that instant? The fact that nowadays, we can see healthy people suddenly collapse, higher percentage would be due to high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack which is occasionally due to bad eating habit and unhealthy lifestyle.
I have thought of a device, tool or alarm to alert somebody, possibly an senior technician, supervisor, engineer or manager whenever anything bad happens to their operator or boilerman. I surfed and searched the net and I found a website called Brickhouse Alert that provide a device that can alert the other party whenever anything (that they define) happen. A message or signal will be instantaneously be sent to the other party to inform on what has happen. The product can be installed at home and and has a Fall Detection detector that alerts 24/7 emergency personnel that something or a person have fallen. The person experiencing the emergency can even push a button and an emergency signal is sent.
On top of that, there is also a monitored smoke detector and a help button that if someone falls on the ground, they can smack it and will get help, medication reminders, inactivity detector and so much more. Smoke detector can off course detect fire before it become worse. Interestingly, as I browsed further in the web, I found out that the device is really cleaver. It can be programmed to detect "no movement" or "movement".
I guess that if this kind of product which is provided by BrickHouse Alert can be modified or suited for process plant or manufacturing industry application, it will be great. If I'm still a process engineer, I'll recommend such product to my company. Before I left my ex-company, an integrated computer system a.k.a a centralized control system was in progressed that can allow the engineers and managers to monitor all the production and utility data online. Those are made in concern of business but having a life alert will be display any company concern to their manpower. I also believe this product should be installed in offshore platforms / oil rigs where safety is extremely crucial for the staffs there.
I'm not sure of you but, though the product is mainly to cater for any situation in a house, I believe applying it in a more diverse industry and operation can be a huge success especially when valuing safety and profitability factor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you downloaded my free "Choosing Alternative Fuel" Ebook? If not, then please download it here. It's Free and on top of getting the free ebook, you'll get eCourse on Alternative Fuel. It's a good and easy way to add more valuable information to yourself.
Labels: Chemical Plant, Equipments, Fire, Technology
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:03 AM,
,
HAZMAT Team In Action
Friday, December 14, 2007
This video reminds me on my Hazmat experiences while I was in the oil and gas field a few years back. Hazmat is not ONLY required during/after chemical explosions or biological warfare but also when dealing with very hazardous materials. For my case, we dealt with oil and gas with high mercury content, which is above the minimum exposure level to human (Mercury is very dangerous!). Hence, we need to really protect ourselves from mercury contamination. The following video shows an example of a group of people being trained for Hazmat. You can see people with coverall going through few steps to be cleaned. That's part of the buddy system which requires other people to help us get cleaned up. In addition, a Hazmat team must be well organized so that the activity will be smooth and well coordinated.
Labels: Accident, Fire, Health, Oil and Gas, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:46 PM,
,
Production Plant Problem
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Normally, there’ll be less or no problem when a production plant is running smoothly. The supervisors and plant operators will be happy taking care of a normal running plant. The executives and engineers will monitor and optimize the processing parameters and ensure all utilities consumption such as water, electricity, steam, air, chemicals, natural gas, LFO, diesel etc are kept at the lower side. Once in a while there’ll be some problems such as leaking mechanical seal in a centrifugal pump or the level transmitter signal is not showing the right reading. Well, those are just some minor maintenance problem and could be easily entertained by the fitters and technician.
In the next post, I’ll share 3 problems that we faced during our plant stopping and starting up last week, which made a lot of us miserable. You’ll learn these real problems that none of us ever expected it to happen. Check it out later…
Labels: Accident, Chemical Plant, Equipments, Experience, Fire, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:32 AM,
,
Fire Risk Assessments Blog
Sunday, May 13, 2007
I received a comment/statement from my previous post - "Going Offshore IV".
Anonymous (...I wish you have given me your name...) from United Kingdom, is maintaining an interesting blog related to Fire Risk. The blog is packed with fire risk, fire protection, fire safety and various other fire related informations. This are important stuff that engineers should know, especially to avoid accident/explosion when dealing with hazardous material or extreme working environment.
A fire risk assessment helps you to identify all the fire risks and hazards in your premises. You can then decide to do something to control them.
Among the articles in the Fire Risk Assessments blog.....
1. Fire Types & Fire Extinguishers
2. United Kingdom: Fire Departments
3. New Fire Safety Rules
4. Steps Needed For Fire Risk Assessment
5. Steps Are Needed To Save Lives
6. Fire Safety Engineering
7. Safety Rules: Fire Risk Assessment
Check out Fire Risk Assessments: http://fireriskassessment
Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLD by email.
Or you can also Subscribe to CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLD by RSS.
Want to switch link with this blog? Email me or drop a comment. Your blog/site should be related to Chemical Engineering.
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:24 AM,
,
The Author
I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!
