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JUNE 2005 See and Be Seen with All Round Vehicle Visibility Day or night, operating mobile plant is a hazardous undertaking. The risk of vehicle and people strikes, overturns, falling people and falling objects increases where visibility is restricted; either because the size of the vehicle creates reversing blindspots, because the work site is poorly lit or night time working is required.
The larger the machine, the greater the risk, so it is no surprise that health and safety directors in the quarrying, mining, tunnelling, civil engineering and heavy earthmoving - some our most dangerous industries - are interested in products that improve 'vehicle visibility' (VV).
Health and Safety Executive statistics tell us that transport is the second biggest cause of fatal accidents in the British workplace, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of people every year. Yet, with the help of some inexpensive equipment, the vast majority of these accidents are preventable.
During the last thirty years the availability of reversing and ‘vehicle visibility’ systems has progressed from absolute zero to the, now, comprehensive packages of reversing alarm, to warn the unseen and unwary behind the machine, and with CCTV, radar and ultrasonic devices and transponders to assist the operator to see and detect hazards in the blind area.
However, despite these devices being readily available and swingeing fines of £500,000 under the Health & Safety at Work Act, plus compensation claims from the victim’s family highlighting the employer’s responsibility to ensure a safe working environment,. there remains a hardcore of operators who have yet to equip their machines for safety.
Over the past 25 years Brigade Electronics, a leading company in the supply of reversing and 'vehicle visibility' (VV) equipment, has helped save countless lives and prevented innumerable accidents.
Brigade was the first company in Europe to supply and fit the vehicle reversing warning alarms that can now be heard on almost every construction site and in urban environments throughout the UK and in many countries around the world.
Now considered to be the market leader in reversing technology, Brigade's recently introduced BBS-TEK® BACKALARM®. is taking reversing to the next level of safety. BBS-TEK®. uses broadband sound technology that addresses the two major potential problems of the conventional narrowband alarms - locatability and noise pollution. BBS-TEK® emits a non-strident sound that is not only fully directional but also, and, most importantly, is effective at 5 dB(A) lower than conventional bleepers.
Additionally, broadband sound is instantly and accurately locatable and provides massive safety benefits over narrowband alarms whose sound can bounce off any reflective surface before it reaches the listener’s ear - thus giving a completely false indication of direction. It is arguable that narrowband alarms are for this reason intrinsically unsafe and that broadband should be adopted in future for all audible warning applications. A number of major international companies including the Tarmac Group and Aggregate Industries for example have already gone “global” on the installation of broadband based reversing alarms.
At its recent meeting in Beijing , The International Standards Organisation (ISO) made a Resolution to update ISO-9533 to include the latest technology in reversing alarms, particularly broadband (bbs-tek).
These address the problem of noise-pollution caused by traditional narrowband alarms by providing an equally effective warning at reduced decibels with a clearly audible but acceptable “Shhh….shhh…” sound. Further confirmation of broadband’s efficacy was the recent award by the US Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to Brigade Electronics plc of first prize in this year’s Noise Management Systems Award. This follows Brigade’s receiving the Noise Abatement Society’s 2003 Award for Innovation.
HJ Banks, a major, Newcastle-upon-Tyne based, opencast coal mining and quarrying company well-known for its sensitivity towards the environment and with an excellent safety record, has recently equipped its fleet of earthmovers with BBS-TEK® . Not only is BBS-TEK helping to reduce the risk of on-site reversing accidents but it is also said to have made the biggest single contribution to overall noise reduction. A further significant contribution to reversing visibility comes in the form of Brigade's in-cab BACKEYE® CCTV monitoring systems.
Originally simple fixed-focus rear-mounted cameras providing monochrome in-cab displays, these systems, too, have evolved into sophisticted and indispensible aids to site safety. Operators can now benefit from full-colour, flatscreen images, audible warnings and incident recording 'black box' equipment.
Brigade's most exciting development for heavy construction and mining machinery is BACKSENSE® - a radar-based sensor system for safe reversing day or night.
Because it does not depend on a light source, BACKSENSE® can clearly identify people and objects up to 6metres away, in both daylight or total darkness, making it ideal where dusty conditions can obscure camera lenses or underground excavations where hazards may be poorly-defined.
Easy to install, the totally sealed sensor unit is resistant to dust, vibration, heat, sun glare (UV) and moisture. The in-cab audio/visual display provides the driver with clear and progressive warnings of people and objects in the danger area."
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Brigade Electronics plc is based at: Brigade House, The Mills, Station Road, South Darenth, Kent DA4 9BD, Telephone +44 (0) 870 774 1500 Fax +44 (0) 870 774 1502, E-mail: sales@brigade-electronics.co.uk Websites: www.brigade-electronics.co.uk and www.bbs-tek.com
Greg Siese can be contacted on Tel: 00 44 (0)1985 844507 fax: 00 44 1 985 844 497, mobile: 00 44 7 710 823 911 email: gregsiese@hotmail.com
Mervin Smart can be contacted on mobile: 00 27 8 346 610 733, email: mervinsmart@global.co.za, |
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