PRESS
For More InformationContact Shelly Vitanza, 409-813-1303, ext. 212
Application Factory,
845 Lindbergh Dr., Beaumont, TX 77707
Energy Control Software Protects Workers
in the Petrochemical and Refining Industries
BEAUMONT – Application Factory, Inc., a software development corporation, has launched DangerTags, a hazardous energy control application, which increases safety by logging all hazardous energy sources, including those in adjacent equipment, and provides identifying long-lasting, tear-resistant tags to isolate, block, and/or dissipate all hazardous sources of stored or residual energy.
The software application will protect workers in the petrochemical and refining industries by automating handwritten processes and providing more durable industry tags associated with lockout/tagout maintenance procedures.
OSHA estimates that compliance with lockout/tagout (LOTO) standard (29 CFR 1910.147) prevents an estimated 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries each year.
“The tools of Lockout/Tagout processes – a Sharpie® and handwritten tags and checklists, are obsolete, time-consuming and leave a lot of room for human error,” said Keith Davis, president of Application Factory, Inc., a 20-year-old consortium of software developers, programmers and consultants. “DangerTags documents all critical points, allowing these plant operators to not only trash their markers but know that they’re going home at the end of their shifts.”
OSHA’s website says approximately 3 million workers service equipment facing the greatest risk of injury if lockout/tagout is not properly implemented and that handwritten processes are one of the major causes of safety incidents and deaths in the petrochemical and refining industry.
“DangerTags eliminates all handwritten processes, prints tags quickly and legibly, with the most complete information available in the industry,” said Davis. “Bundle this with security access features and the ability to chronicle the plant’s LOTO activity, we’re talking revolutionary; we’re talking protection for employees.”
Dangertags maintains the hierarchy of equipment so that all necessary tags can be generated simply by selecting a single piece of equipment and then prints tags in the order of the LOTO standard operating procedure.
The product line includes a desktop version for easy deployment and a client server version that meshes more effectively with enterprise networks and database systems.
“We are helping major oil companies automate these critical procedures, and seeing many downfalls in the way the industry is currently handling LOTO. Basically, data is scattered among many spreadsheets, or worse, solely documented on paper, which is a nightmare when the plant’s equipment changes,” said Davis. DangerTags centralizes this data and provides a single location for easy management of change as it relates to quality of LOTO and that is, of course, directly tied to employee safety.”