Governments, employers, workers and societies worldwide face a huge challenge in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why the World Health and Safety at Work Day (which is commemorated every year on April 28) will focus this year on addressing infectious disease outbreaks at work, with special attention to the current coronavirus pandemic.

The continued increase in COVID-19 infections in some countries and the presence of Illness throughout the world generates fear and great uncertainty. Industries have been hard hit and from different perspectives by this reality. Beyond the immediate crisis, there is also a concern to resume activity, so progress made in the suppression of transmission is maintained.

In this framework, and as we reach the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28, we should all call ourselves to accept a new reality and incorporate new habits and routines that protect us against infectious diseases.

This year the goal of the International Labor Organization (ILO) is to stimulate the National Tripartite Dialogue on Occupational Health and Safety and take advantage of this day to raise awareness of the adoption of safe practices in the workplace, while showing the role that health and safety services play in the workplace (SST).

This day will also focus on the medium and long term efforts, including recovery and future-proof, in particular the integration of measures into systems and OSH management policies at national and business level.

More information on this topic can be found on the International Labor Organization’s website where it is also outlined that the earlier announced 2020 theme of the World Day – on violence and harassment at work – has now been replaced in view of the current global health crisis.

Clearly this reality calls us to be responsible in our work in the industry, and to adopt measures that are up to the circumstances, being aware that occupational safety and health can really save lives, and that only with a collective effort can we end this pandemic.

Do you have any questions on this topic? Any other query or require our advice?

Please, do not hesitate to contact us, we are here to help you.

Businesses are called these days to attain maximum leves of responsibility and protection before the very complex Covid-19 pandemic we live in. Since at Claitec we want to think one step ahead and focus on the aftermath of this health emergency, in this post we would like to share 7 helpful recommendations to ensure hygiene in your workplace at anytime.

1. Perform hand hygiene routines frequently (wash with soap and water or alcoholic solutions).
   
   
2. Avoid close personal contact and keep a distance of more than two meters with people with flu-like symptoms (runny nose, nasal or conjunctival congestion, dry or productive cough, tearing, feverish appearance, etc.).
   
   
3. Cover your mouth and nose with disposable tissues when you cough or sneeze, and then wash your hands.
   
   
4. Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth as your hands facilitate the transmission of the disease.
   
   
5. Carry out frequent cleaning and disinfection of working facilities such as: surfaces, door knobs, furniture, sinks, floors, telephones, etc. To maximise your protective measures you can use household bleach and other chemical agents.
   
   
6. Ensure the adequate ventilation of all premises and frequent emptying of garbage deposits.
   
   
7. Wear vinyl / acrylonitrile gloves in all cleaning tasks. If you use latex gloves we recommend using them over a pair of cotton gloves.

In this space we often talk about “innovation” …

About the need to be “innovative” with any solution designed to improve safety in workspaces and reduce occupational accidents…

However, today we feel the need to dig deeper.

That’s why in this post we’d like to examine why it’s so important to open the doors of our industries to innovation and to start incorporating it into our way of seeing and addressing work and facing new challenges.

Here are three key reasons to incorporate innovation in our industries:

1) A vision of the future.

A company that is really open to innovation is a company that looks beyond the day to day. It seeks to renew itself and to incorporate new processes and tools that help it progress in its tasks and achieve better results. Taking this step implies understanding that innovation is not an isolated idea or a sudden burst of creativity, but the fact that innovation is directly associated with a conscious work mindset and process, with effort and conviction, in the search for knowledge, new ways of doing different things and getting results. Innovation is applicable to any industry or process, but it will not bear results if we are not really sure about questioning what we do, questioning the dogmas we’ve always assumed in our work, and if we don’t really aim towards taking a step forward and incorporating new techniques and new strategies.

2) Differentiation.

We work in markets that are increasingly full of products and services. There is a constant bombardment of commercial, advertising and global competition proposals in the same areas. In this sort of environment, innovation allows companies to differentiate themselves, improve their processes and progress. An innovative company will be able to achieve – after consolidating a working methodology -, its own identity, a differentiating image that will be key and that will end up positioning it differently in the eyes of its public. Today, this could be key to survival and success.

3) Cost reduction.

Similarly, well understood and applied innovation it greatly helps to generate savings in industry costs. Innovation allows companies to be more efficient and help optimise resources. Logically, all this results in better ROI for companies and lower costs for the final buyer.

Do you have any questions for us?

Any doubts about what we’ve talked about here today?

Do you need our advice?

Please, don’t hesitate to contact us, we are here to help!

At Claitec we are doing everything possible to contribute to the prevention and containment of the Covid-19 virus.

A doctor, speaking with a member of our team, explained the precarious situation that is being experienced in medical centers in relation to protective material against the extensive spread of the virus.

Claitec has contributed 3D technology to produce protective masks for primary health centers and hospitals.

We want to thank the company Servei Estació for the contribution of the material: transparent acetate sheets, adhesive neoprene and elastic tape.

Thanks to their collaboration, the health service of the province of Girona will be able to work more safely.

In compliance with the Decree of the Government of Spain dated March 29^th, 2020 for non-essential activities, according to the current situation, Claitec feels obliged to suspend temporarily our production and logistics activities.

This suspension will be effective from today until April 14^th or until a new date is indicated by the Spanish government.

We will continue to inform you as the situation progresses and we will gradually or definitively re-establish productive activities and material deliveries.

Once this exceptional situation has passed, Claitec is fully prepared to restart the productive activity and deliver our products.

While our production is on hold, we maintain our commercial tasks and technical support through teleworking.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any questions through the usual channels/contact information:

+34 972 183 225

info@claitec.com

We continue working side by side so that we can overcome this situation together as soon as possible and we wish you all health and responsibility.

Thank you very much for understanding and collaboration.

The recycling industry is experiencing a remarkable expansion throughout the world. The need to recycle is increasingly clear as we seek to have a more sustainable planet. The result of this recycling boom is a much a greater presence of waste processing plants and materials for reuse everywhere. The tasks performed in these plants are highly intensive and the machinery used – crushers or compactors – are large and potentially dangerous.

In our mission to improve work safety and to reduce the number of accidents at work in the recycling industry, in this post we would like to talk about two tools that are tailored to the challenges presented by these plants, and that generate valuable contributions in such workspaces.

First of all, the HA Solution. This is an electronic safety solution that acts as a complement to the safety elements of conveyor belts or similar systems, helping to minimise risks and reduce accident rates. This tool automatically stops the functioning of the system when the antenna detects the tag in the space defined as “danger zone”.

When a person carrying the HA Solution tag approaches the area determined to be dangerous – for example in relation to a shredder – or when if operator falls into a conveyor belt in a recycling plant, perhaps after  being hit, stumbling or fainting, the system triggers an automatic action that stops the machinery, preventing major catastrophes.

This system, which has already been installed by Claitec in hundreds of recoveries plants, generates a “safe work field”, and it greatly reduces work accidents in certain spaces already identified as especially dangerous in this type of industries.

In addition, it should be noted that this system also records the date and time the machine stopped, as well as the tag number that was detected in the risk zone, so that it can monitor this situation and apply safety policies in this regard, preventing similar situations in the future. This solution also offers the possibility of verifying that the system is operative as an indispensable condition to work safely within the perimeter of the machine.

Then, there’s the Fall Protection System (FPS), designed to prevent falls when working in hazardous areas. It is a retractable safety element, anchored to a fixed element, and connected to the worker’s safety harness.

When a fall occurs, the harness experiences a sudden pull which is immediately detected by the Anti-fall device. This device, in turn, is responsible for sending the stop signal to the plant machinery, resulting in the rapid halt of the machine’s operation.

The device must be connected at the fixed mooring point, through the rotating shackle, using the connector. Naturally, the fixed mooring point must be above the user, so that the gravity force of the fall has the desired effect of generating the sudden tension in the harness.

This tool is also extremely useful in the recycling industry as it helps prevent accidents and serious injuries associated with operator falls.

If you would like to know more about the systems discussed above.

Do you have any questions about the systems discussed in this post? Any query about other products? Do you need advice? Please, don’t hesitate to contact us, we are here to help!   

In this space we usually like to talk about industrial safety and the prevention of accidents at work. Today, we want to focus on two key concepts in the field of prevention and employee safety in workspaces – Safety I and Safety II.

According to leading analysts on occupational safety, Safety I represent the conventional safety perspective. This concept takes occupational accidents as the focus point from which to think and develop work, seeking to “prevent bad things from happening.”

On the other hand, Safety II implies a new way of approaching the subject. A paradigm shift which argues that it’s a lot more positive to stop focusing only on how to prevent things from going wrong and places much more emphasis on how things are going well. In other words, we are asked to look at how the system works without accidents, thus expanding the area of ​​incident prevention and promoting safety management on simple risk assessment.

We must understand that the concept of Safety II shifts the negative view of “what goes wrong”, to achieving a positive look, emphasising “whatever it is that is going well”. This approach implies that occupational safety management should not be reactive, but it should be proactive instead.

That’s exactly the kind of philosophy we align with at Claitec. We understand that there’s a lot we can do in the area of prevention, and that our solutions can be great allies for any type of business looking to improve occupational safety and to reduce accidents.

The systems that we offer act as support and backup for the daily used tools and complement work dynamics, creating safe fields that protect the operators, for example in their coexistence with forklifts, and create much safer work spaces.

Are you keen to find out more about any of our solutions?

Do you need advice on any of our products?

Don’t hesitate to contact us.

Choosing the right safety system is the first step towards creating safer workspaces and reducing the number of accidents in our industries. However, this is a decision as transcendent as it is complex.

Today, we’d like to share several suggestions that will help you prevent and minimise human errors as well as to select the appropriate system for your needs.

The first step involves making an integral and professional analysis of our workspace to be able to detect potentially hazardous zones, opportunities for improvement and general indicators that speak to us about the safety in the site.

Following which, we must proceed to detect what type of threats we face and determine what elements are associated with them. In the analysis – and from the experience gained from working with our clients – several possible answers will present to us and we’ll identify the hot spots where major problems and accidents tend to occur. Based on that analysis, we can select the appropriate solution for each case.

The following systems and tools have helped our clients with some of most common safety problems:

1) People and industrial vehicles working in the same space:

• Pedestrian Alert System. This is a very helpful safety tool which warns forklift drivers when a person is detected at adjustable distances of 1 to 6.5 metres. This unique system can identify people and objects, and it even detects operators who are behind a wall or a shelf. The PAS is very useful in helping reduce the collisions and accidents between forklift drivers and operators.
  
  
• Traffic Control System. This is a safety system designed to separate pedestrians from vehicles. It is a comprehensive traffic control system, which doesn’t depend on batteries and mobile devices. It works completely passively – that is, it does not require human guidance. It is a durable and very easy to install safety system.
  
  
• Pedestrian Cross Safety. A safety solution designed specifically to minimise the risk of pedestrian being run over by a forklift in a crossing. Pedestrians wear tags that emit light signals when detected by an activator. A traffic light immediately warns the driver of the presence of the pedestrian. A very useful tool that makes forklift drivers’ job easier and safer!
  
  
  

2) Systems designed to control a forklift’s operation:

• Narrow Aisle Safety. If there’s a recurrence of accidents in narrow corridors, the NAS Solution will minimise the collision risks between forklifts in narrow space areas. This system warns forklift drivers, by means of a traffic light, when there is another forklift in an area with little room for manoeuvre. It is the perfect companion for forklift drivers.
  
  
• CAS-G2 System. The CAS-G2 forklift anti-collision system is also an extremely helpful tool in spaces where there’s a lot of forklift traffic. It consists of a cutting-edge device used to reduce accidents caused by collisions of cargo vehicles. As a support system for drivers it provides more information about the space they circulate on, and it allows the person in charge of the vehicle to know where other forklifts are located. It is a highly advanced system that integrates seamlessly into cargo vehicles.
  
  
• Low Speed Area Solution. If the problems are caused by the speed of the forklifts, the LSA Solution will improve safety in the warehouse by limiting the circulation speed. It is an electronic system specially designed to complement the safety tools of cargo vehicles and to reduce its speed in areas where there are operators on foot or other pedestrians. It is an extremely helpful tool in the prevention of accidents .
  
  
  

Do you have any queries about the industrial safety systems described in this article?

Would you like to have one of our consultants explain any of them in more detail?

Please, don’t hesitate to contact us, we’ll be delighted to help you!