August 2021

57 www.drivesncontrols.com July/August 2021 SAFETY n Automation is helping to protect workers from Covid T he workplace has changed dramatically over the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Office cube farms are a thing of the past, and video conferencing has replaced office meetings. On the factory floor, employees can no longer stand shoulder to shoulder while working as they once did. Workplaces have quickly adopted social distancing and contact tracing to create safe environments where pre- pandemic workloads can be maintained while still protecting the workforce. Plant managers have also distributed workloads across multiple shifts, provided access for employees to work from home, and increased the number of days a week for operation. Automation has improved safety in common spaces such as breakrooms, locker rooms and lounges. Before the pandemic, the headcount for a common space wasn’t at the forefront of people’s minds. Now, monitoring headcounts is extremely important to maintain social distancing, but how do you do that? One way to maintain optimal room capacity is by using an occupancy monitoring system. These systems maintain a total headcount wirelessly and actively using photo-eye sensors that count persons entering and exiting a room. The sensor sends a count to a controller, which then signals at the door entry if it is safe to enter the room. Manufacturers are also advancing safety in the workplace using touchless technologies. For example, touchscreens that once required an employee to make physical contact with the screen now use PCAP (projected capacitive) touch that allow the user to interact with the screen without actually touching it. There are switches that use this technology as well, allowing employees to easily communicate compliance to new protocols such as workstation cleaning. An RGB switch can notify a factory line worker when it is time to clean their work area. Once the task is complete, the employee waves a hand over the switch which changes colour to indicate that the workstation has been cleaned and sends a signal to a coordinator that the work has been done. Sanitising conveyer lines can also pose a challenge. For example, Digi-Key Electronics ships tens of thousands of packages every day containing more than 100,000 details from an expansive warehouse. You can imagine the miles of conveyors and enormous number of totes needed to move product from pick bays to packaging stations. To help prevent the spread of Covid, Digi-Key designed and installed an ultraviolet light tunnel on its conveyor system that every tote passes through multiple times each day. The tunnel irradiates the entire tote with UV light as it passes through, protecting both employees and customers from the virus. The use of LoRaWan (long- range, wide-area network) badges is another way of protecting both workforces and workflow. A LoRaWan badge is assigned to each employee. The badge is a passive device that records to a cloud-based platformwhen it is close to another badge and for how long. If an employee is diagnosed with Covid, data can quickly be pulled from their badge to identify other workers who were near the infected employee. This helps remove the guesswork from identifying those who were exposed and reduces the number of people who need to be quarantined. Temperature screening platforms are also popping up to further advance safety in public spaces such as airports, offices and malls. Screening – although not foolproof – can help to identify if a customer or an employee is symptomatic. Covid has had a significant impact on our lives. Workplace safety today is light years beyond where it was just over a year ago. The lessons we learn from this fight must be remembered so we are prepared to handle the next public health emergency. Having these systems in place will protect workers for years to come. n The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the way we run our factories to ensure that workers remain safe. Eric Halvorson, partnership marketing manager for strategic programmes at Digi-Key Electronics, looks at some of the ideas and technologies that have been adopted. The UV light tunnel installed on the conveyor system at Digi-Key’s vast warehouse in the US irradiates totes with UV as they pass through, helping to protect both employees and customers from Covid.