The construction industry is one of the most dangerous in the world. Each year in the United States, more than 150,000 construction workers are injured and about one thousand are killed.
Working on a construction site is inherently dangerous, which makes sense considering what’s involved in the profession. However, over the years, certain technologies have been making construction sites safer.
1. Hydraulic couplings
Threaded flat face hydraulic couplings increase safety where high-pressure is present. For instance, road workers rely on threaded quick connect couplings to maintain their pace and prevent disaster.
Although high-pressure injection injuries are rare, they can happen. These injuries can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, workers don’t always realize when they’ve had an injection injury, so doctors misdiagnose the injury as a puncture wound from a wire.
With these couplings, workers don’t have to worry about being hit by a high-velocity stream of fluid when changing attachments or checking lines.
2. CAT Connect technology
For decades, CAT has been a leading manufacturer of construction equipment and is now integrating safety features into its equipment. Using both hardware and software, the new Cat Connect technology promises to reduce maintenance and repair costs and increase compliance, safe operating conditions, and maintain more uptime.
While the company doesn’t disclose the specifics of how this technology works, it seems to be smart technology that uses sensors to detect abnormalities in systems and other things that might indicate a problem.
Here are some of the new CAT safety technologies:
Operator monitoring
You might not think that construction workers would become fatigued driving machinery, but they do. It’s not just drivers on the road who are subject to fatigue and exhaustion.
With operator monitoring, sensors in the cab track the operator’s head and eye movements to spot signs of distraction. If the system thinks the driver might be distracted, an alarm sounds and the seat vibrates. The goal is to get the driver’s attention and bring them back to their task.
These sensors specifically monitor how long an operator closes their eyes and nods their head. If their eyes close or head nods for too long, the alarm sounds and the seat vibrates. These alerts are also sent to the site supervisor in case they need to intervene.
Remote-controlled equipment
You’ve heard of autonomous passenger vehicles, like Google’s Waymo fleet. Well, there are autonomous construction vehicles, too. This technology was specifically designed to eliminate the need for human drivers in hazardous conditions.
With this CAT safety technology, operators can stand in a safe place while operating the equipment in hazardous conditions. This can be accomplished either on site or from a remote location, although each requires a different setup to function.
Worker detection systems
A system to detect the presence of workers is one of the most important safety features that could ever be introduced on a job site. Many construction site accidents happen when someone doesn’t realize a worker is nearby.
Workers using this system wear vests and hats fitted with washable RFID sensors. They’re actually passive RFID devices, which means they don’t require a power supply and they don’t emit radio waves.
At the same time, each construction vehicle is equipped with an RFID sensor that sends out radio waves searching for other sensors. When the machine’s sensor detects a person nearby, it alerts the driver both visually and audibly.
Fatigue sensors
This particular safety technology is really interesting. Workers wear a smart band to bed to collect information on their sleep patterns and circadian rhythms. When workers arrive at the job site for the day, they get a fatigue score based on their sleep data.
The data collected from each worker generates a report that helps supervisors determine how long each worker should be on the job and which workers shouldn’t be operating machinery.
Construction safety isn’t quite satisfactory yet
Sensors can work exceptionally well for making ground-level operations safer, but now someone will need to figure out how to make other aspects of the job safe. For instance, falls account for the highest amount of worker deaths and injuries. It seems impossible to prevent some of these accidents because they can happen quickly and without warning.
Although technology is making certain aspects of working in construction safer, it’s still an extremely risky industry and any improvement in safety will be a breakthrough.
