www.engineeringnews.co.nz 27 there is quality assurance across all parts of the business. A crucial step towards achieving AS9100c certification was to utilise SimpleTrak, a low-cost business process monitoring system. The cloud-based solution, supplied locally by Mike Jacobs and Associates, allowed Revolution Fibres to “institutionalise” its core processes and track both the company’s performance and efficiency, to ensure they conformed with AS9100 standards. Brent Tucker, Revolution Fibres operations manager, says having this information at hand was essential to achieving the new certification. “Usually, especially for a small business like us, quality assurance protocols such as AS9100 are incredibly time consuming and require a lot of complex paperwork. But with SimpleTrak everything was in one place.” Mike Cranna of MJ&A says it is key for companies to monitor the quality of their inputs, the condition of their assets to ensure optimum production quality, and customer satisfaction. “SimpleTrak helps companies like Revolution Fibres to achieve this effectively and efficiently. It allows start-ups and smaller companies to establish systems to monitor, analyse and improve their business processes. “Ultimately that means reducing risk, improving efficiency, and, when it comes to achieving a complex certification like Revolution just has, all the information they needed was right at their fingertips.” EN No more smoking guns Welding without adequate ventilation is dangerous says Cameron Prestidge from Egmont Air. “Symptoms of a sore throat, dry cough, bleeding nose, headaches, breathlessness, nausea, sweating, chills and pneumonia are all signs that a correctly designed fume extraction system is urgently overdue,” he says. Mobile fume extraction is what he describes as a versatile solution to protect yourself from toxic welding fumes in the workshop. A case study that reinforces the message involves a 54-year-old welder who had never smoked but developed emphysema. Emphysem, explains Mr Prestige, does not occur without an environmental cause (usually smoking) except in people with a genetic abnormality, which this man did not have. Lack of any other factors implicated welding fumes as the major cause of his disability. He had been welding for 30 years using a variety of processes and materials – however despite this man’s history, he was unable to receive compensation. The Clean-go mobile fume extractor offers powerful extraction of fumes using an integral fan rated at 1,4h. This captures fumes before reaching the operator’s breathing zone or spreading throughout the working environment. Dual-stage filtration also ensures all toxic particles are completely eliminated and purified air is returned to the workplace. Egmont Air offers a huge range of solutions for extracting welding fumes. “Increased productivity, employee wellbeing, reduction in absenteeism and staff turnover are direct benefits we have seen. “Our systems are designed to complement the work engineers do, so productivity increases because of improved and safer working conditions,” Mr Prestidge says. “Job satisfaction and care of employees is a major contribution to retaining staff and creating loyalty between workshop employees and management.” Extraction systems are designed to suit welding bays, engineering or workshop scenarios. Options are available for special processes such as robot welders, plasma fumes, grinding, and dust applications. EN For a free brochure and more information contact Egmont Air on 0800 781 200 or www.egmontair.co.nz HM040
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