To protect workers and the companies that employ them, emergency drench showers and eye/face washes must be in the right place, at the right time, with the right water supply.  Large-scale industrial settings require tempered water systems that provide right-sized water heating and/or cooling, storage, and recirculation — all engineered to address the unique conditions at each facility.  Several factors contribute to the engineering challenge and complexity; water volume, pressure and temperature vary significantly between sites, and may even fluctuate within a facility.  Coupled with the possibility of sudden demand from multiple drench units concurrently, creating an effective plant-wide design can be extremely complex.

Now what? Designing, building and installing a system of emergency shower eye/face wash units does not address the full scope of ANSI standards.  ANSI includes two additional requirements: Shower eye/face wash units must be (1) Tested and flushed weekly, and (2) Subjected to a comprehensive annual inspection. Conducting all necessary testing is time-
consuming and labor intensive, and usually does not produce adequate documentation to prove ANSI compliance and reduce litigation exposure.

Current automation technology enables facility and safety managers to perform system testing and documentation without the time-consuming, error-prone, and costly burden of manual maintenance cycles.  Safety and facility managers now have the option to equip their large-scale shower eye/face wash installations with System Integrated Management Applications (SIMA™).   SIMA™ is a cloud-based asset management solution that automates facility-wide unit testing and retains a log of system readiness documentation.

SIMA™ connects measurement and activation points installed on physical assets to a cloud-based asset management platform using secure communication channels.  With virtually any standard browser-equipped device, authorized personnel may log on to a secure SIMA™ website to monitor and interact with the SIMA™ −enabled assets.  Offered as an option for custom-engineered emergency shower/eye/face wash systems, SIMA™ provides a cost-effective and location-independent method for monitoring, testing, and documenting system readiness.  In its basic configuration, SIMA™ serves several significant functions:

• Testing and Maintenance – SIMA™ helps take the cost and inconvenience out of continuous compliance by providing both on-demand and calendar-based testing.  To conduct remote unmanned testing, the system can bypass shower and eye/face wash outlet heads remotely and redirect water
flow to a bypass drain.  This
feature makes it easy to test and log simple valve operation and water flow.

SIMA™ can also detect and report out-of-limit conditions such as water pressure, temperature, and system readiness.

• Event Monitoring – How will your personnel summon emergency response resources when they are working alone or in remote locations?  SIMA™ equipped systems can alert supervisors and other personnel when a specific piece of equipment is activated.  This capability can significantly reduce emergency response time, which is directly linked to a favorable medical outcome.

• Data Recording – SIMA™ records and archives installation-wide asset test and activation events. Documentation includes system operating attributes (water temperature, pressure, flow rates, etc.) along with system activation cycle time, essential data in the event of subsequent litigation.  Standard reporting tools make it easy to view and export logged data for further analysis.

Remote assets introduce unique challenges and risks to industrial operators.  To address those challenges, SIMA™ provides advanced monitoring and communication capabilities that integrate remote assets with your central control system.  For critical operating parameters such as pipeline temperatures and pressures, turbine conditions, and power availability, SIMA™ captures instrumentation output and utilizes cellular or satellite communications to integrate remote assets with your operations environment.  Identifying out-of-range operating situations and alerting appropriate personnel before a catastrophic failure occurs will elevate your safety environment from reactive containment to proactive intelligence.

The ultimate emergency shower is the one that never needs to be used.

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