How to Increase Safety and Decrease Costs, without Compromising the Environment when Building Scaffolds.
Companies recently are more aware of their impact on society, the environment, and the economy. They are trying to increase safety and decrease costs, without compromising the environment. Businesses and governments nowadays are taking actions with the focus on creating a balance between those three elements. However, sometimes one aspect can dominate the other two based on the business type, size, or activities.
If we take the oil and energy sector as an example, performing maintenance operations in the field can contain a certain level of risk. The risk can include the people, planet, or profit. It is challenging for any maintenance manager or plant supervisor not to compromise at least one aspect of the three to achieve the project objectives.
I posted a question on LinkedIn asked people to vote from their company perspective.
The question was— What is more important for your company when choosing a new technology/product/or application? Cost, Safety, Impact on the environment, or others.
People voted from 35 different companies. The results were as follow.
- Cost 17% of the total votes
- Safety 57% of the total votes
- Impact on the environment 3% of the total votes
- And others 23% of the total votes.
Based on this survey, it is evident that the element People, which is represented by safety, is the dominant aspect for most companies. In other words, businesses are caring more and more about their people’s well-being regardless of the costs.
How do we help businesses achieve excellence in sustainability?
Traditionally, scaffolds are usually built detached from the counter object because anchoring is always destructive. Suppose the scaffold is to be built free-standing. In that case, the construction must be considerably expanded in the three free directions at the bottom to create a broad base of the footprint, giving the structure the necessary strength and stability.
Customer dilemma
At McNetiq, our customers— the asset owners or the scaffold builders— face a dilemma when building a scaffold. Their issue is reducing the overall costs, guaranteeing people safety, reducing lead-time, and decreasing the impact on the environment.
One of the frequent scenarios is: say a scaffold builder must place the scaffold against a steel object—for example, a storage tank, on a ship, or other smooth steel surfaces. However, the configuration must not harm the surface of the counter object. Or there is not enough space to build a strong scaffold with a large base.
Simple solution
Based on our customer’s pain points, we developed and introduced our patented technology to the market. McNetiq supplies magnetic anchoring for scaffolding work—Controlock® Scaffolding Anchors. This technology gained many prestigious awards worldwide. Such anchoring is very useful in the situation mentioned above. Anchoring with magnetic anchors is always non-destructive. The magnets are safe connections to the steel surface, and no welding is needed. Also, the scaffold structure obtains the required strength and stability from the object to which it is connected. Therefore, hardly any buttresses needed to be used in the construction.
This means;
- Savings in the material used (cost savings)
- Savings in hours of work at height (increase safety and cost savings).
- It also creates fewer obstacles on the ground (fewer footprints and increased mobility and safety.)
“When I was contracting, I looked at the products where I could see the benefits of simplifying the process & safety features over cost.
McNetiq scaffold magnet benefits are
Reduced Labour cost, Less material, Reduced Logistics, Less storage, and Reduced time working at height.
Controlock® magnet is an excellent product in the right hands.”
Mark Parkin
Business Development Manager
48.3 | Design & Management of Scaffolding and Temporary Works
How many magnets do you need for your scaffold?
When there is a project that requires magnetic anchors, McNetiq is often involved at an early stage. Such scaffolds are usually not standard configurations, so they are calculated by a constructor. Based on the customer’s requirements, we can determine the scaffold’s specifications. We calculate how many magnet anchors the configuration requires and how much shear and tensile load each anchor must bear. At that moment, we can determine the number of magnetic anchors needed for the entire logistics.
Can any scaffold builder work with Controlock® magnet?
Training is essential for at least one member of the scaffolding team. The trained person will be certified as a Controlock® Operator. We at McNetiq have a training partner—Scaffolding Training Europe STE. Our training partner developed a one-day training course for our customers.
Now, after fulfilling all these conditions and the scaffold builder made the other regular preparations, the scaffold’s construction can begin.
To know more on how to install and test the magnets, please watch our videos https://mcnetiq.com/videos/
To read more about the technology, you can check out our blog https://mcnetiq.com/blog-controlock-magnet-technology/
You can check our products by visiting our website https://mcnetiq.com/
For more questions, you can call us on +31 (0)85 130 45 66, email us at info@mcnetiq.nl, or fill in the form below.