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When Structural Metal Decks Ltd. (SMD), one of the largest concrete floor providers in the UK, faced a crisis of layoffs due to the economic downturn, it promptly adopted the RFID system to track and record the company’s existing safety net, saving the cost of renting equipment from third parties. Costs, thereby avoiding layoffs. RFID integrator Core RFID provided this RFID system to track the location and status of SMD’s 500 safety nets (which had to be rented from other companies before).
SMD provides flooring for London Heathrow Airport and 02 Arena Stadium, as well as Dubai’s Ski Dubai resort and Burj Hotel. The company takes over 500 projects every year, laying about 1 million square meters of flooring.
Six months ago, the economic downturn caused the company to face financial decline. In order to reduce the cost of renting a safety net, SMD decided to start managing its own safety net. British law requires construction workers working at heights to install nylon safety nets, and the status of the safety nets must be strictly monitored and tracked. The ultraviolet rays in the sun can make safety nets vulnerable, said Craig Galway, SMD’s construction supervisor. Therefore, companies need to not only track the net’s test results on a regular basis, but also understand the location of the nets and the environment they may have been in.
<1> British law requires construction workers working at heights to install nylon safety nets, and the status of the safety nets must be strictly monitored and tracked.
Initially, the company tried to use barcode labels to track safety nets. However, barcodes cannot withstand harsh working conditions, and dust and unintentional damage often make barcodes unreadable.
In mid-March of this year, SMD adopted CoreRFID’s RFID system, which includes safety net tags, two Motorola MC35 handsets with embedded RFID readers, and CoreRFID Portable Data Collector software that manages reading data. The information includes when the safety net was tested, where to work, and when to return.
HID’s Global HF 13.56 MHz tag complies with the ISO 15693 standard and is used on the corners of the safety net. The tag stores a unique ID code, which corresponds to data related to the safety net in the SMD back-end system, such as manufacturer, date of manufacture, 7-digit serial code, and work place.
When safety nets are used, their tags will be read multiple times, and relevant information is constantly accumulating, including the items they are used for, time of use, and maintenance, testing, and inspection information.
Government agencies, companies, and on-site customers may all need this information to judge the safety of the safety net.
After adopting the new system, employees use handheld readers to read safety net tags. When a safety net is used for the first time, employees enter the relevant data of the net in the back-end system. Every time the status of the safety net changes, such as being sent to a construction site, the employee reads the tag and enters the location of the construction site. When the net is sent back, or sent to the inspection area and storage area, the tag is read again.
The service life of the safety net is usually 3-5 years, Galway said. By tracking the usage and maintenance records of the net, the company can better control the use of the safety net and maximize the use of it before the end of the equipment life cycle. In addition, the system can also track the maintenance cycle of the safety net and the cause of damage.
“We can search which networks need annual inspection,” Galway said. “If a network needs to be inspected in the next 45 days, then the company will receive an alert whenever it wants to send it to the construction site.”
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