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NUMMER 10 I 15 MAART
Virtual Reality at Falck’s new Maasvlakte training facility
As you come down Europaweg (N15), you will sometimes see flames curling into the air. Flames from a burning house or oil rig. It is, in fact, Falck’s training facility where companies from across various industries send their people for fire training, as well as to learn how to safely climb to the top of a wind turbine. In the spring of 2018, the Denmark-based safety services provider will open a new facility where they will also be using virtual reality.
EDUARD VOORN
With the help of the Port of Rotterdam, the new facility, which is over a hectare larger than the current 4.5ha premises, will also be located on the Maasvlakte. Falck works for the offshore, maritime, wind, and other industries. Services for the wind industry have seen a huge boom over the past year. With the Netherlands becoming a nation of offshore wind farms, it is getting very busy out on the North Sea. There are numerous wind farms planned for the North Sea, and these all have to be built safely. Paul Boumans, Falck Safety Services’ Commercial Director, has seen a sharp rise in the number of training courses they provide for this industry, which was very welcome given the decline in business from the oil and gas industry. But for Paul Boumans, the training services they provide go several steps further. ”Our work is more than just training workers to safely climb up and down a wind turbine or extinguish a fire. At our new facility, we will further digitalise our courses. We are anticipating the forgetting curve, i.e. the fact
that aſter 6 weeks, only 20 percent of what you’ve learned will have been retained. An app, for example, offers a way to keep up basic knowledge levels. But the new facility will also be even more of a knowledge centre for everything relating to safety. Wind turbine designers and builders can also turn to this centre for information. We would like to be more involved during the various phases, i.e. design, construction, and maintenance, to draw attention to the safety aspect. Why? Because this will ultimately lead to safer work environments during construction, as well as later during maintenance work,” says Boumans.
Falck: 110 years of history Falck is a provider of safety services and safety training. Founded in 1906, this Denmark- based company serves the offshore, maritime, and wind industries with 35 training facilities on six continents, including three in the Netherlands: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Den Oever. Their training services are intended to teach workers in the offshore, wind, and other industries skills to mitigate the fallout of incidents, as well as to prevent incidents. Falck is actively involving their clients in developing the new facility on Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte site, asking them for input on how to make this training facility 2.0 function even better. The company will therefore be organising a brainstorming session at the site of the former RDM shipyard on Thursday 6 April. Paul Boumans, Falck Safety Services’ Commercial Director: “At this session, which will take place in the aſternoon and evening, we would like to hear from our clients what they want and need in terms of training, so that we can take this into consideration in the construction of our new facility.”
More simulation Building a new facility for Falck is more than merely a relocation. Sure, the new facility will provide the same fire extinguishing, climbing, and rescue simulation options, but it will also usher in the new digital world. ”Interactive realistic experiences and the link between knowledge and practices are the basis for the development of the new site,” Boumans explains. ”The new facility will therefore include virtual reality environments, enabling simulations such as a rescue boat surrounded by fire. What do you do in a situation like that? What emergency procedures apply? This kind of technology will make training even more realistic.”
Another new addition will be the so-called Field Lab, which is a bit like TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research). This lab will be hosting research and practical experiments in the future. Boumans gives the example of liquefied natural gas (LNG). With Gate terminal, the LNG import terminal on the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam is positioning itself as Europe’s main LNG port. “It’s a new product that is hard to detect. In a small environment, we can show our clients what happens when it is released. But we can also create test environments here for wind turbine designers and builders.”
Paul Boumans, commercieel director Falck Safety Services
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