Case Study: Safe-T-Support Manual Stops Improve Safety at Powell Electric
Case Study: Safe-T-Support Manual Stops Improve Safety at Powell Electric
The Challenge
Powell Electric contacted Safe-T-Support after experiencing a total failure of an overhead garage door in their facility. At the time, there were no secondary safety systems in place to prevent the falling garage door or warn nearby building occupants of possible danger. In this specific incident, a large overhead garage door experienced structural failure of a support mechanism and free-fell a total of 8’ before wedging in the door track and slamming to the ground. This incident resulted in extensive damage to the garage door track and necessitated the replacement of the overhead door. Thankfully, no employees or equipment were located underneath the specific door as it fell. Despite avoiding costly equipment damage or employee injuries, Powell Electric determined it required additional overhead garage door stops in all doors to prevent further instances of failure.
The Solution
After reaching out to the skilled technicians at Safe-T-Support, Powell Electric determined that the best option for all overhead doors was the Manual Safety Arms with LED Lights. Considering the number of overhead doors present at the facility and the regularity of use, the Manual Safety Arms with LED Lights provided the best compromise of cost and function for the customer. Powell Electric chose to install this Safe-T-Support solution on all 18 doors throughout their facility and received the 5% discount as a result. All solutions were custom-built to accommodate the array of heights of the existing overhead garage doors.
The Manual Safety Arms with LED Lights are manually operated by floor personnel to swing into place under the door when opened to an adequate height. Once the arms are locked into place, the LED Lights will switch from red to green and indicate that the door is properly secured and employees are protected from possible overhead door failure. When the door is no longer required to be open, the arms can be retracted, the overhead door shut, and the LED Lights will switch back to red.
All Powell Electric employees were quickly trained to properly engage the Manual Safety Arms underneath the overhead garage doors and instructed to always look at the LED Lights before passing below.
The Results
After installing Safe-T-Support Manual Safety Arms with LED Lights in all facility overhead garage doors, Powell Electric was afforded three distinct benefits. First, the company was now thoroughly protected against equipment damage or employee injuries caused by failing overhead garage doors. Second, all employees benefitted from working in a safer environment with considerable measures taken to eliminate injury or death caused by falling overhead doors. Lastly, Powell Electric could avoid future costly repairs to the garage doors or tracks as any overhead door that experienced failure while open would now be securely caught by the Manual Safety Arms before free-fall can occur.
While the initial failure of a garage door was inconvenient for Powell Electric it could have been far worse, not all companies are lucky enough to avoid serious equipment damage or employee injury. After working with Safe-T-Support to install Manual Safety Arms with LED Lights throughout their facility, they no longer have to worry about experiencing that type of failure again.