A hand in safety
  from: Offshore Engineer
  by: Russell McCulley
  Thursday, October 02, 2008

With industry increasingly focused on injury prevention, manufacturers and product developers are looking for new ways to boost safety – and market share. Russell McCulley looks at a trio of products that address some common offshore accidents.

In a largely hands-on industry, it’s little surprise that hand injuries are among the most common complaints among fabricators, deck hands and rig workers. When word got back to officials at Orr Safety that safety managers were increasingly concerned about hand injuries – specifically, hairline fractures to the back of the hand and fingers – the company brought the issue before a steering committee that included representatives from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Superior Energy.

This fall, after more than a year of research and development, Orr will take delivery on the first shipment of the Kong glove, a Teflon-coated glove with a neoprene cuff and flexible thermoplastic rubber shields that guard the hand’s most vulnerable spots. Ironclad Performance Wear manufactures the glove; Orr Safety has a five-year contract to act as distributor, says vice president of strategic planning Clark Orr.

The glove went through a couple of field tests during the development phase, which wrapped up earlier this year. Prototypes of the Kong were distributed to 200 oil and gas workers, who were asked to complete surveys for the steering committee. After some initial issues with grip and durability, an improved version of the glove proved a hit in the field, says Orr. ‘A lot of people didn’t want to give them back,’ he says. The gloves survived 80,000 hours of tests with no injuries, Orr says, and will remain under evaluation after distribution. Orr Safety has placed an initial order of 60,000 pairs, which retail for $26.40 to $39.61, depending on volume, and Orr says interest from customers has been brisk. ‘People are placing orders for the glove every week, and that’s ramping up,’ he says.

Shine a light
In the Gulf of Mexico, UK-based industrial lighting company Dialight has completed the first installation of an LED lighting system on an offshore rig, says Dialight product manager Rizwan Ahmad. The fixtures, marketed under the name SafeSite, have been designed to provide greater resistance to vibration than incandescent lighting, with housing built to UL Class 1 Division 2 standards. Coupled with LED’s seven-to-ten year life expectancy, Ahmad says, the shockresistant system virtually eliminates the sometimes risky task of changing bulbs.

LED is also safer in hazardous environments because it operates at lower voltage and cooler temperatures, reducing the risk of combustion where gases are present. Besides the safety factors, he adds, the system is more energy-efficient. Traditional lighting is often left on during daylight hours, Ahmad says, whereas LED provides ‘instant on-and-off ’ functions.

The retrofitted lighting system has been installed on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, whose operator Dialight would only identify as a ‘major oil and natural gas producer’. The system replaced fluorescent fixtures with white downlights for general illumination, white task lights for more targeted lighting, a medium intensity beacon and a flashing visual signal mounted on the derrick. Ahmad says the system has garnered ‘tremendous interest from the (offshore) industry in the past year’ – particularly because of the vibration resistance of LED, although ‘it’s not only one thing that makes our light suitable for the offshore industry, it’s a suite of things,’ he says.

Transfer market
One relatively new product that has already seen extensive use offshore is the X-904 personnel transfer device from Billy Pugh Co, most notably on BP’s Thunder Horse project, where two 12-man baskets were used in 281,000 transfers over a year with no incidents, according to Paul Liberato, president of the Corpus Christi, Texas-based Pugh Co. The X-904, which BP has adopted for use throughout the Gulf of Mexico, resembles a traditional personnel transfer net but improves safety in several ways, Liberato says. ‘We were looking for outer protection and fall protection, but wanted to keep some of the features of traditional personnel baskets,’ he says. ‘We literally spent years developing this basket by talking to health and safety people, rig hands, drillers, you name it.’

Perhaps the biggest problem was developing a method of securing passengers without making them feel trapped, he says. ‘There’s a fear of not being able to get out quickly, or, if you’re operating in rough seas, a need to get from the deck to a safe area quickly,’ Liberato says. ‘People said, “do not try to strap me into a personnel transfer device, I won’t do it”. The challenge was, how do you restrain somebody without making them feel restrained?’

Liberato and his brother, Frank, Pugh’s vice president and general manager, took a tip from the world of auto racing, where both restraint and quick egress are crucial: the X-904 uses a quick-release piece of hardware found in race cars, but modified for Kevlar straps that connect the basket’s internal structure and the passengers’ personal flotation devices. Cushioned ‘feet’ to soften landings, non-skid flooring, side netting and overhead protection decrease the risk of injury, and the riding method requires a less intense grip than traditional personnel transfer nets.

The added security is especially important when transferring people who aren’t accustomed to personnel baskets, Liberato says. During the most active period of the Thunder Horse project, when crews housed nearby were working to reinstate the structure after its ballasts took on water causing it to list, many of the 400 to 500 workers transferred daily were third-party contractors, he says. ‘Most of those people had never been offshore before, and they were working in all kinds of weather conditions,’ he says. ‘It was the single largest undertaking offshore to move that many people. And they did it with no incidents.’OE

Stop that drop

Meanwhile, in Aberdeen, a new web-based software solution from Pisys – PODOMS (prevention of dropped objects management system) – was designed specifically to cut the dropped object risk offshore by streamlining equipment storage and inspection practices via an easy-to-use online application.

Operator Talisman approached Pisys looking for a software package to help support the ‘Stop Drop’ initiative at its oil & gas facilities.

PODOMS records the results from regular inspections of secured tools and equipment as well as any ad hoc observations before producing a portfolio of items for further inspection within a managed area of a site.

The portfolio includes images and location maps highlighting rope access areas.

The software produces an action list for corrective measures which can then be tracked and closed out within a set time period.

Talisman is currently deploying PODOMS from its servers to over a dozen assets in the North Sea.
- David Morgan

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