The winners of the IMHX Design 4 Safety Awards have been announced in a ceremony on BITA’s stand at the premier materials handling event.
The specialist winners in each of the six categories are as follows:
• OCME Auriga Laser Guided Vehicle in the Automation category.
• Hörmann Light Grille in the Goods-in, Goods-out category.
• Crown WT 3040 rider powered pallet truck in the Industrial Vehicles & Ancillary Products category.
• KASTOunitower in the Racking & Storage category.
• Sentry Protection Products Collision Sentry® in the Technology category.
• “Taking Care with Toyota – A Year of Safety” in the Safety Practices category.
The Design 4 Safety Awards are run jointly by IMHX owners BITA (the British Industrial Truck Association) and Informa Publishing, to highlight the importance of safety product design features in helping to ensure safe materials handling operations.
A panel of experts, drawn from key areas of the materials handling industry, voted to elect three finalists in each category. A second vote voted determined the specialist winners.
Speaking at the event, James Clark, Secretary-General of BITA, said: “BITA is in the business of ‘lifting industry standards’, which includes working continually to improve standards of safety in all workplaces using industrial trucks.
“The Design 4 Safety Awards highlight the importance of safety product design features in helping to ensure safe materials handling operations. This year we expanded the number of categories in recognition of the sheer range of different technologies and product areas that now work together in materials handling workplaces. We were delighted with the number of entries we received and the breadth of safety innovation they represented across the industry. Congratulations to all the winners, each of whom has made an important contribution to safety in the workplace.”
Judges’ citations for the Specialist Winners
AUTOMATION – OCME Auriga Laser Guided Vehicle
The OCME Auriga LGV offers all round protection that minimises the potential to strike pedestrians. This class of vehicle typically works in busy warehouses with high throughput, a working environment with an increased risk of these “struck-by” accidents, which remain a perennial concern for safety practitioners. The onboard laser scanning sensing device acts as secondary “eyes” to sense obstacles posing a collision risk, including pedestrians, and stop the vehicle.
GOODS-IN, GOODS-OUT – Hörmann Light Grille
The Hörmann Light Grille uses an array of light beams to help ensure the safe operation of high-speed doors. The system prevents the door closing if any of the beams are broken, protecting pedestrians from being struck by a closing door. The system’s responsiveness also means that the door will react quickly when vehicles are approaching preventing collisions and damage to the door itself.
INDUSTRIAL VEHICLES – Crown Lift Trucks WT 3040 rider powered pallet truck
The powered truck is a real workhorse and is therefore very heavily used in warehouses. Unfortunately, frequent use can often lead to bad habits creeping in such as operators driving across sites with their ankles over the side which risks the ankle being trapped or crushed. This can be a very serious injury involving a long time off work or even threatening the operator’s career.
RACKING – KASTOunitower
This racking system is a major step forward as it creates a safe discipline for handling bar stock which involves no manual handling or slinging. Bar stock is one of those nightmare materials to handle safely, not only because of the length of it but also because of the difficulty of storing and moving it.
SAFETY PRACTICES – Taking Care with Toyota – A Year of Safety
What excited the judges about Toyota’s entry was that it demonstrated thinking that went beyond their own employees or product. Rather than being than insular, Toyota sought to raise awareness of a critically important subject – the need to keep people tuned into training and reinforcing that managers have responsibility not just operators.
TECHNOLOGY – Collision Sentry
Collision Sentry is a great product that increases blind corner safety by giving an early indication of hazards round the corner. This allows operators to simply concentrate on operating the machine. As well as being inexpensive, one of the major attractions of Collision Sentry is that it is quick and easy to install – there is no need for someone to come in and make an assessment as you can do it yourself.
BITA
Tel: 01344 623800
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