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MSA Safety Incorporated Opens The Doors To A New Cranberry Township Manufacturing Facility In Pennsylvania, USA

Global safety equipment manufacturer, MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA safety) has opened the doors of a new 20,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, USA. Celebrated this morning with a formal ribbon-cutting event, the building opening establishes MSA Safety’s Cranberry Township campus as global center of excellence for gas detection technology. Cranberry Township Manufacturing Facility The single-story manufacturing facility, which is located next to MSA Safety’s global headquarters, will be used primarily for assembly work related to the recent relocation of multiple fixed gas and flame detection (FGFD) product lines from Lake Forest, California, USA. “With our recent acquisition of Bacharach, Inc., MSA’s portable and fixed gas detection business today represents more than a third of global revenue,” said Nish Vartanian, MSA Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), adding “The facility we’re opening today will help drive cost savings for that business, while enabling our team to better leverage the many gas detection resources we already have in place right here in western Pennsylvania.” More manufacturing jobs created for western Pennsylvania MSA Safety’s Cranberry Township site opened in 1985, as part of the company’s former Instrument Division Nish Vartanian adds, “Those resources include the expertise of 300 skilled factory associates and more than 200 engineers, just in Cranberry Township alone. Collectively, these benefits position MSA to better meet the needs of our customers, while creating an opportunity to bring additional manufacturing jobs to western Pennsylvania over the years ahead.” MSA Safety’s Cranberry Township site opened in 1985, as part of the company’s former Instrument Division. In 2010, the building was renovated to accommodate the company’s relocated Corporate Headquarters staff from RIDC Park in O’Hara Township, Pennsylvania. Class-A office space and advanced manufacturing facilities MSA Safety Incorporated’s 320-acre Cranberry Township campus combines Class-A office space with advanced manufacturing facilities and is also home to the company’s John T. Ryan Research and Development Lab. Nish Vartanian stated, “As a market leader in both portable and fixed gas and flame gas detection products, we’re excited to be able to invest in this area of our business in western Pennsylvania, where MSA Safety Incorporation employs approximately 1,250 people.” Deployment of new connected technologies Nish Vartanian concludes, “We’ve had tremendous success with our ALTAIR portable gas monitor line, our XCell Sensor technologies, the recent launch of our groundbreaking Ultima 5000 Series Gas Monitors, and the deployment of new connected technologies via our Safety io subsidiary. All of these innovations originated out of Cranberry Township, and it’s exciting to know that we are still expanding on MSA’s 107-year legacy of manufacturing excellence in our region.”

MSA Safety Incorporated Selected As A Preferred Portable Gas Detection Supplier For Royal Dutch Shell

MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA Safety), the globally renowned company in the development, manufacture and supply of advanced safety solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures, has announced it has been named a preferred supplier of portable gas detection equipment for Royal Dutch Shell. This preferred supplier status is part of three-year global framework agreement to supply portable gas detection equipment and other safety technology to Shell’s offshore and onshore facilities and installations worldwide. MSA Safety – Shell partnership With the new agreement, individual Shell worksites have the flexibility to work with MSA as a preferred supplier A global group of energy and petrochemical companies, Shell has been a user of MSA products for more than 30 years. With the new agreement, individual Shell worksites now have the flexibility to work with MSA as a preferred worldwide supplier, providing access to MSA Safety’s market-renowned and diverse range of sophisticated safety solutions. This includes the company’s line of best-in-class connected portable gas detectors that offer web-based gas detection capabilities, such as remote live monitoring and fleet management. The latter is provided by MSA Safety Incorporated’s Safety io subsidiary, which develops intuitive software to deliver comprehensive data-driven insights and analysis, with real-time safety alerts. Focus on safety innovation and connected technologies “We are pleased to select MSA as a new Shell vendor, under this global framework agreement. With MSA’s focus on safety innovation and connected technologies, they are an organization well suited to help Shell achieve our compliance, safety, productivity and cost-savings goals,” said Chrystal Landgraf at Shell. Bob Leenen, the President of MSA Safety Incorporated’s International business segment, said “Having worked with Shell for more than three decades, we are very pleased to be named a preferred supplier and continue a partnership focused on providing Shell employees with access to the most advanced safety equipment available today.” 360-degree approach to assessing worksite safety Bob Leenen adds, “In many respects, this new agreement reflects the 360-degree approach MSA takes with regard to assessing worksite safety. From gas detection and head protection, to fall protection, industrial breathing apparatus and our training services, we look forward to this opportunity to continue strengthening our relationship with Shell and supporting their efforts, and focus on workplace safety.”

Safety io Grid Fleet Manager Ensures Effective Gas Detection And Grid Fleet Management

Portable gas detection equipment needs to work faultlessly and in conjunction with safety best practice. Lives depend on it. But, faced with many daily demands on a safety manager’s time, maintaining compliance across a fleet of equipment is a constant challenge. Matt DeLorenzo, Business Director for Safety io (an MSA Safety Company subsidiary), explains how the Grid Fleet Manager – software service for managing fleets of portable gas detectors – helps to ensure compliance through a proactive safety approach. If there’s one pressure that unites every safety manager in the industry, it’s battling to keep multiple plates spinning – trying to maintain rigorous safety monitoring and enforce robust Standard Operating Procedures against a backdrop of interruptions throughout the day. One of the most important areas constantly vying for attention is the need to manage complex fleets of portable gas detectors. There is the need to monitor maintenance, calibration and testing for every detector, ensuring it is completely and accurately compliant. Gas detector fleets safety management The fleet portfolio may be diverse, spanning both single and multi-gas detection capabilities The administrative and management burden to ensure gas detector fleets are available, functioning correctly, ready for use and compliant cannot be underestimated. There are several obstacles to overcome. Organizations may well be using detectors in multiple locations, across multiple sites, and potentially in different countries. The fleet portfolio may be diverse, spanning both single and multi-gas detection capabilities. Devices will inevitably be acquired or replaced. All of which means that manually tracking inventory and usage and keeping maintenance accurate is a difficult task. Grid Fleet Manager System For this reason, Safety io developed the Grid Fleet Manager system to provide a single point of truth. By gathering and compiling data automatically, as devices are returned and docked after use and bump tested or calibrated before use, it simplifies the management of the fleet of portable gas detection. Fleet Manager focuses on prioritizing the most important information, prominently highlighting when and where urgent action is required. Each morning, the system sends an organization’s safety managers (and equipment maintenance partners if needed) a concise e-mail summarizing the status of the fleet at every operational location. If there are any concerns, e-mail links take users directly to view their Grid account. An intuitive fleet dashboard shows top-level, prioritized metrics and alerts, each of which can be expanded at a click to reveal granular-level detail on any device or event. Efficient sensor and alarms operation A common logistical challenge faced by safety managers is making sure that there is sufficient calibration gas available to both test devices and calibrate them accurately. To ensure correct sensor and alarm operation, best safety practice calls for every gas detector to be bump tested daily before use, and also calibrated monthly. If gas is unavailable, operatives cannot bump test equipment or carry out calibration, meaning that they are unable to work. To do so would breach safety compliance legislation as devices could potentially fail to work, exposing workers to non-identifiable gas leaks. Such downtime and risk is both costly and avoidable. In response, Fleet Manager alerts safety managers when gas stocks are becoming depleted, allowing partners to proactively re-supply gas as needed before supplies expire. Sensor alerts Fleet Manager provides alerts on sensors that require attention so that the equipment at risk can be replaced Over time, sensors in gas detection devices can degrade. Fleet Manager provides alerts on sensors that require attention so that the equipment at risk can either be maintained or replaced before it fails. In addition to providing safety managers with control over their fleet, they’re also able to see – for all device serial numbers in the fleet – when, where and by whom the device was last used, when it was last tested or checked, and whether any further tests are needed. Portable gas detection equipment Portable gas detection equipment has come a long way in recent years. As well as providing vital early warnings about leaks, today’s advanced, portable gas detectors also gather and store invaluable data – recording critical information both about incidents and also the working practices of operatives. This information, held locally on each device, can be downloaded when the device is docked and – ideally – properly analyzed for insights. By constantly pulling and storing data from all devices, Fleet Manager provides valuable insights to safety managers on non-safe behaviors. Standard Operating Procedures The system is also a key driver behind helping to achieve compliant operational practices. Whenever a gas detector issues an alarm, operatives must follow strict Standard Operating Procedures. They must acknowledge the alarm in the instrument and vacate the area. Unfortunately, real-world experience does not always reflect best practice. Some operatives may choose to ignore the alarm or even turn the device off. But with Fleet Manager, these occurrences are recorded and highlighted, allowing safety managers to identify those posing a risk, and swiftly move to re-educate or retrain them. When it comes to streamlining device maintenance and compliance, the technology behind Fleet Manager is liberating. Safety io Grid Fleet Manager allows for a proactive approach to gas detection safety programs, allowing customers the ability to minimize distractions and put their time toward higher safety priorities, becoming more efficient and better informed in the process. Cloud-based fleet management platform One of the major goals was to ensure that information delivery was carefully prioritized In the case of the latest solution platforms developed for gas detection by Safety io, they conducted many thousands of hours of customer interviews and prototype and interface testing to ensure the most meaningful and actionable value. One of the major goals was to ensure that information delivery was carefully prioritized and that customers received the critical information they needed when most relevant. It’s also about recognizing when data is useful, while gas levels in an area may not reach compliance thresholds, the detection of a low-level anomaly can indicate whether investigative work may be warranted. Safety io Grid Live Monitor The result was two complementary solutions - Safety io Grid Fleet Manager, a cloud-based fleet management platform for managing the health of fixed and portable gas detection devices; and Safety io Grid Live Monitor, a real-time alert and incident management tool that tracks operatives and their status as they work. One of the exciting opportunities MSA is embracing is the ways technology can enhance its wide safety equipment portfolio. In addition to portable gas protection devices and fixed gas and flame detection, MSA also offers Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus, head protection, fall protection systems, PPE and more. The ability for technology to confer automation, intelligent reporting and data archival promises both to increase user safety and significantly reduce the current manual workload surrounding mandatory audits, reporting, compliance and inspections.

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