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PPS NEWS
VIGOROUS DECON EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE PROGRAMMES; AN ESSENTIAL PART OF
HOMELAND DEFENCE
PPS has been awarded the contract to provide the mass decon units for New Dimension, the country’s £53m homeland defence programme. Governments and other institutions are currently investing a great deal of money in terrorist response capability.
A not insignificant slice of this money is being invested in decontamination technology. For this investment to be effective it is axiomatic that emergency services personnel have to know how to use the equipment and how to maintain it.
Maintenance in particular is an issue because decon
Because of this there will always be an understandable tendency for hard-pressed and over-stretched emergency service personnel to marginalize the need for regular checks on the incident-readiness of equipment in this category, especially when they have so much else that seems to be more immediate, if not more important, on their plates.
These checks can be likened to lifeboat drills and maintenance. The fact that the ship will probably never sink doesn't mean that there is no need for regular checks and maintenance to ensure that the boats can be launched if necessary. It is a similar situation with decon equipment and my company, Professional Protection Systems, one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of decontamination solutions, have devised a high specification maintenance programme for decon technology that addresses this problem by putting into place simple and easy to follow routines. It is a programme essentially applicable to most decon units to be found in service anywhere in the world .It addresses maintenance in depth, putting the smallest details under the microscope whilst also offering depth in terms of time.
This maintenance programme is based on a five year life span for inflatable units and 10 years for mechanical units. In fact applying this kind of programme will prolong the life of either type of unit considerably beyond those periods, but technologies are changing rapidly and units now in service will probably be obsolescent in a decade. As an example PPS introduced the original small inflatable decon shower for Hazmat incidents in 1996 yet by 2003 we are introducing a second generation of decon technology. It would seem fairly certain then that by the time our 10year period has elapsed we may be on a third or even fourth generation unit. I am not going to speculate too much here on what that may be like but it could be some kind of waterless decontamination system.
Any viable maintenance programme depends on a close co-operation between manufacturer and user .Practically this means the end user has to be offered some insight into the manufacture of the product, as well as hands-on experience of the equipment in its pre-delivery state. The aim is to develop familiarity with the product in a hands-on way. This is of course not a substitute for operational training exercises, rather it is the up-stream part of these, where the user can learn to deploy the units with the maximum of technical accuracy.
It is only when operatives are familiar with the possibilities of decon equipment that they can carry out the maintenance checks. In practice these are slightly different for inflatable units and the new big mechanical homeland defence mass decon units.
For either to function however close attention has to be paid to the accessories which both types of decon shower enjoy in common. Water and air heaters, generators, pumps and even non-mechanical items like raised flooring, waste water tanks, couplings and hoses, if they are not constantly monitored, may have an effect on the inherent operational liability of the equipment.
As far as mechanical equipment is concerned procedures must be provided for inspecting all units for signs of wear or damage. Also it provides for regular checks on items like oil levels, signs of fuel contamination, the state of electrical cables and connections as well as regular inspection of water connections and fuel lines for wear or damage. An important part of the procedure is to start up all units and confirm that they are operational within their specified limits. Lastly, and most importantly, a worthwhile maintenance programme must instruct, after cleaning and testing and the fastening of appropriate test labels, how equipment should be packed away in such a manner that it could spring into instant life.
Inflatable units have their own special procedures. All equipment appertaining to them needs first to be checked against the inventory list then the unit has to be inflated and monitored out for obvious leaks Particular attention must be paid to welded seams and the containment, doors and zips have also to be examined for damage or wear.
Features like loops, light port holes, groundsheets, water sumps and curtains must also be inspected for damage or wear. Water systems have to be subjected to similar procedures. Features like detergent injection systems have to be inspected for blockages or signs of damage.
The structures of the second generation Mass Decon units, because they are mechanical and work on an articulated frame technology, are subject to different maintenance issues. They have an immediate advantage over the first generation products as absolutely no air whatsoever is involved when they are deployed. The strength of the inflatable, still the numero uno for smaller scale situations, resides in the fact that it can usually be rapidly and relatively easily repaired and made ready for action again. . Whilst a second generation unit is unlikely to present any serious maintenance issues any problem with the mechanical structure is going to need a professional engineer to fix it . The solution to this is that as soon as the problem is located the defective unit is removed for repair and a substitute put in its place. These new units, capable of handling 200 ambulant and 20 plus non-ambulant casualties per hour are becoming flagship units of the emergency services. Their metal frames are of enormous complexity and if they do require attention it has to be from a dedicated frame specialist. Fortunately because of the fine tolerances to which they are made and the aircraft grade aluminium from which they are manufactured this is an unlikely event. Also they are so designed that they can remain in action even if 30% of the frame is damaged. It is essential however that even when held in store these units should be erected from time to time and rigorously examined for any faults.
It will be clear from this that the decontamination unit has evolved rapidly into an infinitely more complex piece of technology than the original unit first introduced by PPS in 1996.. For this reason the future is going to mean manufacturers working ever closer with end users. Also those manufacturers are going to have to be outfits with an international reach able to offer complex services as a matter of course. This means the day of the cottage-industry supplier has finally gone.
Besides the end user coming to the manufacturing unit this new dispensation will involve the manufacturer in carrying out annual site inspections This will be backed up by an access controlled website containing downloadable instructions for all products plus advice on fault tracing. A 24-hour telephone hot line for advice will also be part of the package plus a round- the- clock call out service.
Currently we are working to ratchet up this level of service by the introduction of an on-going Decon Users Forum.
This will enable end users to feed back information on all aspects of equipment use and performance. This in turn gives the manufacturer the possibility to continually fine tune products and thus deliver ever-improving performance to our customers, and that includes the practitioners, the people at the sharp end as well as the managers. I hope this proves that the need for a well thought out maintenance programme for decon equipment is a very real and valid one that is going to be at the heart of the best decon manufacturers’ relationships with their customers
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PROFESSIONAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS, Protection House, Sherbourne Drive, Tilbrook, Milton Keynes, Bucks, ENGLAND. MK7 8HX
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 272240 - Fax : +44 (0) 1908 371605 - Email: sales@ppsgb.com
Registered in the United Kingdom - Registration Number 4494024
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