Method and system of managing the safety of a plurality of personal protection equipment items

• US 9,411,994 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Alan, Neil A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): DARAMOLA, ISRAEL O
• Application Number:
  US13/250,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20120081214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,775 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 340/5.74, 340/572.8, 141/21, 235/380, 463/12, 700/232, 600/301, 715/854
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10316 using at least one antenna particularly designed for interrogating the wireless record carriers antennas in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system and method are provided for managing the safety of a plurality (10) of personal protection equipment items (11). The system and method assign unique identifiers (12) to each of the items (11) and encodes the identifiers (12) into Ultra High Frequency RFID chips (18) attached to each of the items (11). A user (29) can identify the specific items (11) in the user'"'"'s inventory by scanning the chips (18) and the system can provide safety information relevant to each of the specific items (11) based on the chips (18) that are scanned, including training information specific to each item (11), training information specific to each worker (34) assigned to each item (11) by a user (29), and maintenance and/or inspection protocols in the form of images (60) illustrating the steps of the protocols and text (62) explaining the steps.

Claims

1. A method of managing the safety of a plurality of personal protection equipment items, the method comprising the steps of:

assigning a unique identifier with a size of at least 128 bits to each item of a plurality of personal protection equipment items;

for each item of the plurality of personal protection equipment items, encoding the unique identifier assigned to the item into an ultra high frequency RFD chip and attaching the chip to the item either before or after said encoding;

storing the assigned unique identifiers in a database that associates each identifier with the item corresponding to the unique identifier;

wirelessly receiving the unique identifier from each of a plurality of the chips after the chips are attached to their corresponding item;

automatically accessing the database to determine which items correspond to each of the unique identifiers received in the wirelessly receiving step;

electronically transmitting to a user information specific to the items determined in the automatically accessing step;

wherein the step of electronically transmitting information comprises automatically transmitting the information to the user in response to schedules associated with each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step; and

wherein the schedules are safety inspection schedules specific to each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the assigning step comprises assigning a 128 bit unique identifier to each item of the plurality of personal protection equipment items.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of electronically transmitting information comprises transmitting training information corresponding to the items determined in the automatically accessing step.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising assigning a specific person to at least some of the items determined in the automatically accessing step and wherein the training information comprises training records for each specific person assigned to one of the items.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the schedules further comprise training schedules specific to each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning at least one of a user and a location to at least some of the items determined in the automatically accessing step and storing the items in a database.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of electronically transmitting comprises transmitting at least one of a date of purchase, a date of service entry, to whom issued, and as, manufactured data specific to each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of personal protection equipment items include at least two products selected from a group consisting of safety harnesses, lanyards, lifelines, fall arrestors, safety belts, gas detectors, self contained breathing apparatuses, facepieces, protective gloves, and protective garments.