Technology Transforms to Minimize 'At-Risk' Labor Hours

Posted: 2018-2-28

Source: Business Report

https://www.bus...isk-labor-hours

Advances in inspection technology are playing a sizeable role in minimizing "at-risk" labor hours in the industrial space. Ranging from the old school to the high-tech, the process of inspecting vessels and equipment is going through a radical transformation. The desire for change is understandable. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction fatalities numbered 991 in 2016 (the most recent data available), comprising more than 20% of all worker deaths in the country. The leading cause of these fatalities was falls, followed by being struck by an object, electrocution and crushing accidents.

In an effort to take humans out of the equation, there has been a lot of buzz around drones and robotic technology in recent months. Among a host of other reasons, a big part of the appeal is that contractors and owners can sidestep OSHA’s stringent Confined Space Entry (CSE) standard. Confined spaces include, but are not limited to, tanks, vessels, silos, vaults, equipment housings, ductwork and pipelines.

"Our approach to safety for the last couple of years has been exposure reduction," says Scott Waguespack, mechanical services manager at BASF in Geismar. "If you eliminate the hazard, then you’ve completely taken it out of the situation."

"You’re not putting a human at risk. That’s No. 1," says Lance Wiebeck, project manager at Turner Industries in Baton Rouge. "The number of at-risk hours goes down right off the top." Turner has jumped into the robotics market with both feet, and today uses the technology for a variety of industrial applications such as tank, vessel and pipe inspections. The contractor’s inspection and non-destructive examination group relies upon a diverse lineup of robots and employs more than 500 full-time engineers, technicians and certified inspectors.

Read the full article at BusinessReport.com.

Image: Joshua Vaughn and his robotics and controls research group at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are working with Japanese developer HiBot Corp. to develop a "cable-driven parallel manipulator" to inspect vertical metallic surfaces such as in chemical storage tanks. Photo by Terri Fensel.