Hydrex - improving safety by fitting hazard detection systems
The company
Hydrex Equipment Ltd specialises in the short term rental and sale of mobile plant and equipment. It provides trained operators with the necessary licenses, maintaining the equipment and ensuring compliance with all health and safety matters. Hydrex operates a fleet of over 1,300 machines available from 16 depots nationwide.
The situation
Loading shovels and other similar plant and vehicles used in quarry environments often have blind spots which can be hazardous when a driver is reversing. Camera monitor systems can eliminate the largest blind spot but when working in conditions with poor visibility such as thick dust, the driver may be unable to see objects in his danger zone. Quarry owners, Imerys, were concerned about the need to provide safety on wheeled units in Cornwall but Hydrex found the cost to fit some units, particularly to the Bell trucks, to be very high.
The solution
Brigade fitted BACKSENSE pulsed radar rear detection systems to 30 of Hydrex’s fleet of loading shovels, articulated dump trucks, a mobile fuel tanker and a motor grader. BACKSENSE utilises pulsed radar technology to detect people and objects at long range.
Products fitted
The BS-1045 (4.5 metre range) BACKSENSE, is rugged and reliable; resistant to moisture (IP68), dust, vibration, heat, cold and glare, making it ideal for ideal for heavy goods vehicles, construction vehicles and mobile plant machinery. BACKSENSE is designed to work on the front, side or rear of vehicles providing all round coverage of the vehicle.
BACKSENSE combines an LED visual warning and three levels of audio warning for the operator. Detection zones are programmable on heavy duty models via a laptop and can be set to ignore fixed objects, bodywork and attachments that are in the detection zone. Multiple sensors can be networked together to provide the greatest area of coverage. There is a choice of models with detection ranges from 3 metres up to 8 metres.
Feedback
Vincent Scott-Halton, Hydrex Group Marketing Manager said: “We have found Brigade to be very helpful. The key thing with Brigade is that if something was damaged we were able to replace the precise bit, rather than the whole unit. The coloured lights on the panel combined with the audible warnings are becoming a necessary safety feature to have.”
