Rail Safety Week

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This week marks Rail Safety Week, an initiative to ensure commuters are aware of their surroundings and stay safe around the rail network.

But what about safety in design? Performance Based Consulting has recently been engaged with two major rail projects to help provide functional and safe stations for Sydney commuters. We made sure the stations would be dependable in a fire emergency situation, and that appropriate fire safety measures were installed to allow safe occupant evacuation, and to facilitate fire fighting capabilities.

By applying fire engineering principles to rail networks, we are able to ensure safety during evacuation. We look at things like distances to exits, widths of stairs, and evacuation times to make sure stations are as safe as can be. We make sure they are kitted out with extinguishers to allow first response fire fighting.

PBC exists to create safe spaces and change the way we build. Contact us to chat about how we can help you with your upcoming project.

Why Workplace Health and Safety has almost nothing to do with offices and everything to do with people.

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If you didn’t know it yet, this year has been the worst year for the flu in quite some time. And it’s not just Sydney that’s suffering. Across the nation, Australians are experiencing most serious flu epidemic we've had since swine flu in 2009.

Many of us sitting in office-based jobs and businesses tend to think of Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) as slips, trips and falls. But in the Engineering industry we widen our view of what makes a safe workplace. We're pretty accustomed to making sure we arrive at site with personal protective equipment (PPE) and all the necessary equipment to prevent obvious physical injury. However, we often forget that hygiene is an equally serious WHS issue.

Think about the last time someone in your workplace has a slip trip or fall.

Now, think about the last time when someone in your work place got a cold or flu.

All the time, right?

Influenza and other communicable illnesses are a legitimate WHS issue and it’s costing the nation. The latest data (see our sources below) predicts this flu season will cost Australian businesses $4.6 billion in lost productivity this year. It also suggests that employers should expect nearly half their people to tap into their sick leave; and of those that do tap into their sick leave, 20% of them will take 3 or more days off.

7 tips to keep all hands on deck this flu season

The good news is that you can move the needle on this issue. A cleaner office with less germs (and therefore less colds and flu) can be yours for the taking. Here’s 7 tips to get your team back in the game and right as rain:

  1. Be flexible, like a gymnast – Offer your squad flexible start and finish times and the choice to work from home. Crowded public transport is a sure fire way to catch colds and flu. By allowing people to be flexible and arrive and depart the workplace at off-peak times you are reducing the likelihood of people catching communicable diseases. Likewise, allowing people to work from home reduces the likelihood of them getting sick, and if they are coming down with an illness or recovering it will protect the rest of the office.

  2. Its posh to wash - On average, people touch their faces at least 18 times per hour so it is important that they regularly wash their hands. We know that 80% of infectious diseases are transmitted by touch, the flu virus can survive outside the body on a hard surface for 24 hours.

  3. Keep it lean, mean and clean – with disinfectant wipes. Set a reminder to do wipe down your desk and workspace, mouse, keyboard, headsets and other equipment. after you shut down at the end of the day. Once leaders are observably doing this, others will follow suit. Have a box of tissues on every desk and a bin to pop them into once used also at every desk.

  4. Coffee, tea, petri dish? – Make sure mugs, glasses, crockery and cutlery are not left on desks at the end of every day. These need to go straight to the dishwasher (and not hanging around in the sink either) where they’re free to cultivate all kinds of icky bacteria.

  5. “Your Kitchen Rules” – Tea towels might be ok for at home, but they have no place in your workplace kitchen. Opt for paper towel instead. Make Friday “Flick it out of the fridge” day, where what’s left over from the week will get checked out. And to avoid the uproar from your tribe, make sure everyone is aware of the rules in advance and has a role to play in maintaining them.

  6. No jab, no play – Well, sort of. We know you legally can’t enforce a flu vax on everyone, however, offering the flu vaccination free to your team will absolutely make a dent on the illnesses. A great time to do this is Easter, before the season is in full swing.

  7. Get outta here! – Literally. Don’t eat lunch at your desk - encourage your people to get outside in the fresh air when the weather is good. Similarly, if they are coughing and spluttering, it’s time to get them out of the office, to the doctor and then to bed. No arguments!

Currently, the Australian Government advises that an annual vaccination is the best way of preventing the flu and any associated illness, and encourages all Australians of any age to get one. Because the flu virus is constantly changing, every year the flu vaccine changes too, so it protects against the flu strains which are most likely to be around during that winter.

Remember, you might be able to see that sparking wire, but just because you can’t see germs doesn’t mean they don’t do as much damage! Our WHS Legislation applies in EVERY office, on site – and every workplace you can think of.

We hope you have been unaffected by the 2017 flu season, but if you’re unlucky enough to find yourself laid up sick in bed, we’re sending you a virtual bowl chicken soup and best wishes for a speedy recovery!    

Find out more about how our team approaches safety here and follow us to see how we work!

http://performbc.com/blog/2017/6/7/new-starters

 

Sources

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/Influenza/Pages/reports.aspx

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-21/flu-influenza-why-2017-has-been-a-particularly-bad-year/8826512

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/australia-hit-by-worst-flu-outbreak-on-record-in-2017/news-story/56d9f7266bcc8a0a7ceacd5298e06d88

http://www.immunise.health.gov.au/internet/immunise/publishing.nsf/Content/immunise-influenza

How the world has become smaller.

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The natural barriers such as the mountains, seas and vast distances have divided the world and hindered our reach. With the advancements in transportation technology, these barriers have been overcome.  It’s bought the world to a higher level connectivity physically, bridging cultures together.

Humans as a species have continuously been expanding our potential to break through barriers in part due to our unique relationship with machines. Humans can not fly or break the sound the barrier alone but only with the collaboration of built machines. At PBC we embrace collaboration with all stakeholders to ensure all communication is acknowledged. Collaborating as early as possible to provide the best performance-based solution with efficiency and flexibility.

It’s not just our world that is becoming smaller - our reach beyond the Earth’s atmosphere has been extended; a barrier that once thought of as insurmountable. We broke through the atmosphere and set foot on the moon. In 1936 The New York Times said, “A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere”, but only 80 years later we have over 1000 satellites in orbit. 

While it is difficult to predict the future, we should never doubt our abilities to push boundaries and further our reach.

We uphold this attitude when designing performance-based solutions that cover all the details, delivering the highest calibre of work for our clients. As we can’t predict the future but you can be sure we’ll do utmost to make sure the future is safer and prepared for it. So shall we work together to make the world a safer place?

We are explorers.

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“One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind”, Neil Armstrong’s words still resonates with all mankind who wish to be travel through space. However, almost 50 year later first human being set foot on moon, just 12 people have walked on the moon and none since 1972. No one has travelled any further than the moon.

After NASA’s shuttle program was retired in 2011, commercial space tourism has been one of the solution to keep going with the space exploration activities. SpaceX, a privately founded in 2002 by CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk is planning to fly two paying passengers around the moon in 2018. Blue Origin founded by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, planning to send first customers flights on short trips to space in 2018. Virgin Galactic founded by Richard Branson is also planning to give passengers ride aboard SpaceShipTwo, a spaceplane designed to carry six passengers and two pilots. These private companies contribute and continue man kind’s space exploration efforts.

The idea of space travel give rise to significant safety concerns as everyone could imagine. A notable setback in commercial space travel took place on October 31, 2014, when Virgin Galactic’s spaceship violently crashed, killing a test pilot. Being the first into the unknown is never safe but taking all precautions to be prepared gives us the possibility to advance beyond our limits.

At PBC we find inspiration from previous explorers to explore all the possibilities in the work we do. Exploring all the way we can do better, continuously learning and improving all we do.

Sources:

https://bigpictureeducation.com/short-history-human-space-travel

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3470209/virgin-galactic-cost-fly-space-richard-branson-spaceline-launch/

http://fortune.com/2017/08/24/spacex-spacesuit-elon-musk-design-space/

https://www.space.com/36267-blue-origin-space-capsule-interior-sneak-peek.html

Automotive Milestone

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Dieselgate and the Death of Innovation

Friday, September 18, 2015. The US EPA issues a notice of violation of the Clear Air Act to the Volkswagen Group. This was the beginning of ‘Dieselgate’. Volkswagen was found to have intentionally cheated emissions testing to meet the US standards. The auto giant was eventually fined $2.8 billion by the US government. Skip forward to late 2016 and Audi announces it is withdrawing from the World Endurance Championship (WEC), which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Dieselgate had blown a massive hole in the VW Group’s budget and Audi’s Le Mans stake, no longer being profitable, was axed.

Audi competed at Le Mans for 18 years between 1999 and 2016 and was on the podium for every single one of those races, including 13 victories. Not in all my memory has a sporting team been so devastatingly dominant for so many consecutive years. Porsche, the winningest team at Le Mans, returned prototype racing in 2014 and subsequently won in 2015 to 2017. Then, just over a month after their 19th Le Mans win in July 2017, Porsche announced they would be withdrawing from the WEC.

This wasn’t so much of a surprise though. Prototype racing had been playing with hybrid racing since 2012. However, in later years, electrical faults have been wreaking havoc and retirements on the race. Toyota had showed dominance in 2016 and lead for much of the race but, still in search of their first win at Le Mans, their car gave out on the last lap of the 24-hour race (no joke). Porsche ploughed through electrical issues every year since its return in 2014. It was not a surprise that they’d had enough.

So, why am I telling you this story?

Well, for over eighty years Le Mans has been the event, the race, the place, where manufacturers come to test their new innovations. Audi, Peugeot, Toyota, Nissan, Ferrari, Volvo, BMW. Porsche, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, McLaren, Mazda… they have all built their road car empires on the lessons learnt at Le Mans. Engines, suspension, aerodynamics, brakes… this technology is developed and tested at Le Mans (and the Nürburgring too, admittedly). So, the collapse of prototype racing at Le Mans, largely thanks to Volkswagen’s Dieselgate, will likely mark the decline in new technologies from the German cars.

Toyota remains and hopefully Mazda and Nissan return too. The future of the innovation lies where it has for decades… Japan.

The views expressed in this article are those of only of the author, Phillip Hamilton, not PBC itself.

Learning from past events.

In July 1981, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri hosted a large party in the atrium area of the hotel. During this event, a pair of suspended walkways on the 2nd and 4th floors collapsed leading to 216 injured and 114 dead. Following investigation, the cause was determined to be resulting from a seemingly minor change in the original design of the walkways proposed by the fabricator and approved by the structural engineering without due process.

The original design had the 2nd and 4th floor walkways supported by box girders suspended from a single pair of hanger rods passing through the 4th and 2nd floors and retained by nuts and washers. Each floor is independently loading the hanging rods. The proposed change split the hanger rods in two sets where the 4th floor was hung on the first set and the 2nd floor suspended from the 4th floor girders. This resulted in the 4th floor nuts and washers supporting the weight of the 2nd floor below.

This loaded the nuts and girders with at least twice its designed loading and subsequently, with a large crowd and live loading, the box girders split, slipped over the nuts and washers to the crowd below.

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A good analogy is to consider two people hanging on a rope. In the first case each person is gripping onto the rope but in the second one person is gripping the ankles of the other. There is still the same amount of loading on the rope but the second case is much more precarious.

This seemingly minor change had a catastrophic result which would have been picked up by the engineers had they performed a review of the design or calculations.

As the general public, we don’t have a choice but to trust the constructed environment in which we live is safe and sound. When we as engineers sign off on a design we take on the responsibility for its safety. But to err is human so it is essential that we develop processes to catch the mistakes and reduce this risk.

The views expressed in this article are those of only of the author, Nadav Cohen, not PBC itself.

Energy Milestone

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The Importance of Energy Storage in Delivering a Sustainable Future

Australia’s dependency on fossil fuels is often criticised – why do we rely on coal and natural gas to provide 91 % of the power to our country? Shouldn’t we be like Iceland, who use fossil fuels for less than 0.2 % of their power (relying on geothermal and hydroelectric), or Denmark, who can pull 39 % of their energy from the wind? How should we move forward as our resources are depleted, and we become starved for energy?

An oft-quoted answer is solar power. We are the sunburnt country – a dry climate and convenient latitude allow us many hours of high powered sunlight, to be harnessed by everything from rooftop panels to solar farms. Which is fantastic, right up until it’s cloudy. Or night. Or winter.

Inconsistent power supplies cannot meet the demands of a consistent society. It is not acceptable for the lights to go out when it is overcast. The elevator cannot stop working after sundown. We need some method of storing this energy – and to the surprise of many this simply doesn’t exist.

The current best method of storing electricity is through hydroelectric dams. When we have excess energy, we pump water up a hill. Then, when we are low on energy, we run the water back down, spin some turbines and supplement the grid. Pumped height storage is surprisingly efficient (over 70 %), however due to the huge infrastructure requirements, and geographical locations being a long way from the city, this only works in certain circumstances.

This problem can be solved with batteries. Batteries can store this excess energy when it is available, and release it when it is not. They are unlikely to achieve the same efficiency as hydro – but they are not geographically restricted, and can be installed without huge infrastructure commitments. Powerful batteries are the keystone in the arch of electricity generation, and as the technology develops we will see the harnessed capability of renewables explode.

If Tesla is able to bring their 100 MW array to South Australia – it will inspire confidence in this new technology. Implementing this will allow the development of renewable infrastructure around South Australia with incredible increases in efficiency, and push the energy policy of the world into the future.

Welcome Cyndy!

PBC is proud and excited to welcome a new addition to the team this week. Cyndy Reddy is our newest fire safety engineer. With a background in research and development, and a degree in materials engineering, she has a keen interest in finding ways to improve safety outcomes with the latest technologies.

Cyndy’s journey to PBC started a year ago, when she decided that she’d like to move into the building services space. Cyndy ultimately chose PBC because of our fun and innovative culture.

“From my first interview, I realised that PBC had a different mindset. It was such a fun atmosphere. Fire safety is all about protecting people, so what we’re doing is serious, but at PBC it was clear that I’d have the freedom to be creative and work on projects that challenge me, and that felt important,” Cyndy said.

So far, Cyndy is kicking goals in her new position, and our director Will couldn’t be more thrilled with her performance.

“Cyndy stands for everything that we value at PBC. She is constantly looking at things from a different perspective and loves a new challenge. She impressed us from the moment we met her, so I’m excited to have her on board,” Will said.

Cyndy is just one of many new recruits we’re hoping to add to the PBC team in 2018. For more information on our open positions, click here.