Page 15 - North American Clean Energy May/June 2020 Issue

rescues have two additional complicating factors not found
in the majority of rescues: extreme heights and extreme remoteness. Nowhere is a total fall rescue plan more important than hundreds of feet in the air or hundreds of miles from the nearest emergency services. Of course, relying solely on local emergency services is never a suitable alternative for a rescue plan, but having those services close is a decided benefit to assist a stricken worker once back on the ground.
In the event of a fall or other incapacitating incident, the rescue must be initiated immediately, meaning that the rescue equipment must already be in the turbine nacelle - not in a truck 240 feet below. Also, the rescuer must be prepared for many potential types of rescues, including self-rescue with the use of
a constant-rate descender (CRD) device, or an assisted rescue (whereby the fallen worker is transferred from their own fall arrest system to that of the rescuer’s, then lowered).
Rescuers must also be prepared for events within the tower itself. A worker may be injured at any
height, from just above ground level up
to the very top. Given the ready access to
the worker from above or below via the fixed ladder, rescuers can utilize a belay- style or CRD device, depending on the situation and condition of the worker.
Just as engineers continually move energy production forward by creating new forms of clean energy, fall protection professionals must also constantly adapt to meet the challenges of keeping workers at height safe during installation. In both cases, out-of-the-box thinking will serve them well, now and in the future.
Baxter Byrd is a technical writer with Pure Safety Group, an independent provider of fall protection equipment and training worldwide. His primary mission is translating dense regulatory standards to increase understanding and practical applicability. Byrd holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Washington.
Pure Safety Group
/// www.puresafetygroup.com
Next level predictive maintenance
The technology group Wärtsilä announced the launch of its Expert Insight predictive maintenance product. This digital product enables customer support to be delivered proactively by Wärtsilä Expertise Centres to ensure long-term accurate insight for their predictive maintenance strategies. The product is available in combination with a Wärtsilä Lifecycle Solutions agreement. Wärtsilä Expert Insight leverages artificial intelligence
(AI) and advanced diagnostics to monitor equipment and systems in real-time. When anomalous behaviour is detected, it is flagged to specialists at Wärtsilä Expertise Centres, allowing them to support the customer proactively with
an appropriate resolution to the issue. The combination of AI, advanced diagnostics, and Wärtsilä’s deep equipment expertise greatly enhances the safety, reliability, and efficiency of
the equipment and/or systems installed. Wärtsilä Expert Insight represents an important next step within the company’s ongoing development
work in honing its predictive maintenance capabilities. Wärtsilä Expert Insight promotes closer collaboration between Wärtsilä’s Expertise Centres and the customers’ technical personnel, which in turn forms the basis for better asset management decisions, thereby taking predictive maintenance
to a new level. By identifying and highlighting potential issues proactively, asset availability is greatly enhanced, as is the reliability and safety of the equipment or system.
Wärtsilä Corporation
/// www.wartsila.com
In-field scalability for sealing applications
A.W. Chesterton Company launches new single and double cartridge seals built
on its new AXIUS modular seal platform. These modular seals enable customers to make quick seal face and feature changes around a standard seal base to meet varying applications quickly and economically. The first mechanical seals offered on the AXIUS platform are: Chesterton 1810 Heavy Duty Modular Single Cartridge Seal; a reliable, plant-wide seal that has performance and reliability enhancing add-on capabilities. The 1810 has environmental control options such as multi-port flushing and quench
& drain, and Chesterton 2810 Heavy Duty Modular Double Cartridge Seal; the 2810 delivers advanced emissions control and safety. It features a “Diffuser Sleeve,” an optimized barrier-buffer channel which improves fluid flow to and from the seal’s support system and enhances temperature regulation to extend seal face life. This feature was developed with extensive research using state of art technologies including CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA (Finite Element Analysis).
A.W. Chesterton Company
/// www.chesterton.com
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