The LDAR Technician’s PDA: a Safety Device or a Hazard?

Since the dawn of the Wireless Age in LDAR, more and more LDAR Technicians have been (wirelessly!) connecting their TVA 1000B and phx21 to a handheld computer.
The most frequently used handheld devices include:

• Archer Field PC
• Archer 2
• Juniper Systems Mesa
• Janam
• Symbol Motorola MC70
• Symbol Motorola 9090, 9060, 9091
• Various Intermec products

Typically, each of these is wirelessly linked via Bluetooth connection to the TVA1000B or phx21 LDAR analyzer.

The Technician now has something to look at while she is traveling from the control room to her first component. Assuming that she is not playing Solitaire or Tetris as she walks, the handheld’s display may or may not be distracting her from being constantly aware of the hazards of slips, trips and falls.

Bingo! The handheld has just become a hazard.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. More and more programs are beginning to see that the handheld and the LDAR software that can be loaded on it can be the most effective safety tool at the Technician’s disposal.
In four very important ways, well-written software on an LDAR handheld equipped with GPS capability can take the critical, potentially hazardous moments in a Technician’s day and transform the safety expectation from “hoping for safety” to “assuring a safety focus.”

• JSA Process
• Specific Safety Awareness Moments
• Guaranteed Best Response
• “Right Time” Hazard Recognition

We will address each of these critical LDAR safety moments in our next blog posts.