6 Safety


Safety monitoring service expanded to meet growing demand for worker protection


In response to growing demand for employee protection and a one-stop solution to keep workers safe on the job, Blackline Safety Corporation has announced a major expansion of its round-the-clock safety monitoring service.


The expansion includes growing the Blackline Safety Operations Centre (SOC) – the only in-house safety monitoring service operated by a connected safety vendor, which operates 24-7, 365 days a year – by increasing the company’s specially-trained monitoring staff to meet rising user demand in North America.


The company will also launch its fi rst European in-house SOC in France this spring to better serve international customers.


“The more the world becomes a connected place, the more businesses are looking for a seamless, end-to-end consolidation of employee safety services,” said Sherrie Sawkey, Blackline Safety Director of Global Safety Operations, noting that the company expects to see a 100 per cent increase in the number of connected devices monitored due to the expansion.


With the market for lone worker protection in North America and Europe combined estimated to reach more than US$260 million in 2022, Sawkey explained that the need for enhanced, consolidated monitoring services is on the rise.


“Employers want to deal with one vendor for hardware, software and monitoring because it leaves less room for error when every second counts, and that’s where we have a distinct advantage,” she explained. “As a result, we’re looking to expand the number of our monitoring agents by up to 50 per cent.”


Launched in 2015 to focus exclusively on safety monitoring through Blackline connected devices, the Blackline SOC is staffed by professionally-trained agents who are experienced in managing safety alerts – including skillfully handling gas and lone worker incidents – from receipt through to resolution by following each customer’s unique emergency response protocol and involving local fi rst responders as needed. Since then, the centre has experienced steady growth, increasing from two agents to 20, who currently handle 800 to 1,000 alerts daily from more than 37,000 connected devices, including both wearable and fi xed safety monitors.


In 2021, after transitioning its dedicated command centre to a remote workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blackline SOC managed, handled, responded to a record 250,000 alerts for the year, the majority of which were related to high gas levels or missed check-ins. Only 20 of those alerts escalated to the point where local emergency services were contacted through the 9-1-1 emergency network, with Blackline agents using the company’s advanced technology to direct fi rst responders to the exact location of the employees involved.


“We are committed to providing the highest standards in safety monitoring and ensuring the safety of all our users, so they return home safe and unharmed,” said Sawkey. “The fact that such a small percentage of alerts ended up requiring outside intervention shows that our technology does what it’s designed to do: prevent emergencies before they happen.”


Blackline’s technology is cloud-based, featuring GPS-enabled safety sensors and devices that leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect workers to live monitoring. The platform includes high-performance emergency response and evacuation management capabilities as well as contract tracing. It connects employees with software that pinpoints their location, enables back-and-forth information sharing and collects vital data, making it possible to detect the exact location of a gas leak or determine how often workers are travelling through high-risk areas. The company’s wearables are offered in two robust models — one connected via a cellular network and another via satellite.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/gMM9 For More Info, email:


email: For More Info, email: email:


57761pr@reply-direct.com


Remote monitoring, notifi cation now available for leading range of fi xed gas and fl ame detectors


Engineers seeking a cloud-ready fi xed gas and fl ame detection monitoring solution will fi nd that the highly reliable, proven FieldServer FGFD ProtoAir Gateway from MSA Safety provides them with an intelligent, dependable, fl exible, advanced technology answer to process and plant safety.


Many hazardous industry plants are today operating non-stop to keep up with demand due to supply chain and geopolitical instability. The FieldServer FGFD ProtoAir Gateway gives process and plant engineers the fl exibility to stay connected 24/7 to their fi xed gas and fl ame monitoring systems while away and/or to keep an eye on unstaffed sites or facilities.


MSA’s advanced FieldServer FGFD ProtoAir Gateway is a wireless external, high-performance, low- cost industrial plant control and building automation IoT gateway. It provides cloud connectivity and instant deployment of multiple fi eld protocols, enabling new or legacy devices to easily interface with other protocols.


Every Fieldserver FGFD ProtoAir Gateway is factory pre-confi gured before delivery with MSA Safety’s most popular fi xed gas and fl ame detection products, which enables seamless Cloud communications to one or many of its MSA FGFD detectors and systems that monitor: toxic gases, oxygen defi ciency, combustible gases, and open fl ames.


The FieldServer FGFD ProtoAir Gateway pre-programmed fi xed gas and fl ame detectors available include Ultima®


X5000, Ultima X, ChillGard® 5000, ChillGard VRF, TriGard, ZGard®, Senscient ELDS™, S5000, IR5500/OPIR-5, FL500 UV-IR, FL500 UV-IR H2, FL4000H MSIR, MC600, SupremaTouch and ModCon 75


Touch. These detectors and controllers are widely perceived as being among the best in their class across a wide range of industries such as aviation, chemical, electric power generation, food/beverage, mining, oil/gas production, petrochemical refi ning, pharmaceuticals, and more.


Not only can the FieldServer ProtoAir Gateway be used with MSA’s FGFD fi eld devices, but it can also be expanded to include other process safety equipment that have 4-20 mA, Modbus or BACnet connectivity. For example, should a fi re event be detected by the FL500


Flame Detector, the system could be expanded to include notifi cation and automatic Halon gas or sprinkler extinguishing systems. Similarly, should a gas leak event be detected by the Ultima X5000, the control system could notify a valve to shut off the line or take action to bypass it.


Integrated MSA Grid Cloud support enhances the ProtoAir’s value by enabling remote monitoring, control, cloud-based alarm notifi cations (SMS or E-Mail) for trouble or alarm conditions and data visualisation through MSA Grid dashboards. Users can view data, confi gure dashboards, download historical data, and provide remote monitor/control for connected devices without being on site.


The ProtoAir FPA-C4X uses LTE to securely connect devices to AT&T, Verizon or Vodafone networks. This cellular connection allows IoT applications to move machine data into the cloud for maintenance, management and troubleshooting of remote equipment. An embedded OpenVPN Server enables secure remote access and programming of the OEMs Ethernet devices in the fi eld.


When housed in a NEMA 4 enclosure, the FGFD ProtoAir is suitable for hazardous applications and comes with a built-in cellular antenna and all the relevant safety precautions. The MSA Grid FieldServer Manager provides the best, most cost-effective, and easiest method to deploy solutions to meet today’s demands for cloud-based connectivity.


FieldSafe is a security feature set added to every FieldServer gateway. The FieldSafe feature set ensures device security in a world where cyberattacks are increasing in frequency and threats are becoming more sophisticated by securing the local hardware and the MSA Grid application with some of the latest technologies that are currently available in the IoT marketplace.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/qZZ2 For More Info, email:


PIN April / May 2022


email: For More Info, email:


57766pr@reply-direct.com


Investment of over $1M to expand global gas monitoring of rental program


Blackline Safety have announced a $1 million investment in the expansion of its product rental program.


With strong demand from customers globally for versatile solutions to accommodate their diverse safety project needs, Blackline Safety launched its rental business in spring 2021 and is gearing up for rapid growth this year.


“Whether the driving factor is a turnaround, special project, outage or repair replacement, our customers have told us they are looking for a fast and fl exible solution to keep workers and contractors safe,” said Sean Stinson, Chief Revenue Offi cer, Blackline Safety. “We are pleased to offer rentals as the most effi cient way for customers to quickly obtain our personal protection wearables and area gas monitoring equipment to protect their people on site or in the fi eld—or to try before they buy.”


As part of the expansion, Blackline Safety has invested in approximately 1,500 pieces of equipment – including its fl eet of cloud-enabled G7 wearable safety devices, EXO portable area gas monitors, docks, cartridges and accessories – for rental. With all equipment manufactured in-house, the company has the fl exibility to increase production as demand grows.


“Our rental business is a great example of how we’ve been able to respond to the needs of the market,” explained Stinson.


Rentals for North American customers are dispatched from the company’s distribution partners or through Blackline Safety’s Calgary and Houston facilities. Work on supporting international rentals is underway starting with distributors in the United Arab Emirates, with a view to establishing a Dubai facility to facilitate rentals. Typical order fulfi lment is same-day, and with Blackline Safety’s drop-and-go deployment and direct to cloud capabilities, customers can get up and running as quickly as the next day.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/KBnZ For More Info, email:


email: For More Info, email:


57516pr@reply-direct.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52