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

• US 10,176,347 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2016
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• 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): Sherwin, Ryan
• Application Number:
  US15/094,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20160292473A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,005 Days
• Field of Search: 340 101, 340 574, 705 4
• 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 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 Radio Frequency Identification 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, the step of electronically transmitting information comprising automatically transmitting the information to the user in response to schedules associated with each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step;

requiring the user to indicate that each step of an inspection protocol was passed or completed for the entire inspection protocol to be indicated as passed in the database; and

storing the inspection protocol as failed absent an indication from the user that all of the steps for the protocol have been passed or completed;

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 further comprising assigning a specific person to at least some of the items determined in the automatically accessing step.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the information includes specific instructions for inspecting the items.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the instructions include images that illustrate how to perform each inspection step of an inspection protocol in addition to text that explains how to perform each inspection step.

6. 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.

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

assigning a unique identifier 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 Radio Frequency Identification 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, the step of electronically transmitting information comprising automatically transmitting the information to the user in response to schedules associated with each of the items determined in the automatically accessing step;

requiring the user to indicate that each step of a maintenance protocol was passed or completed for the entire maintenance protocol to be indicated as passed in the database; and

storing the maintenance protocol as failed absent an indication from the user that all of the steps for the protocol have been passed or completed;

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

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the information includes specific instructions for maintaining the items.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the instructions include images that illustrate how to perform each maintenance step of a maintenance protocol in addition to text that explains how to perform each maintenance step.

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

assigning a unique identifier 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 Radio Frequency Identification 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, the information including images that illustrate how to perform each step of at least one of an inspection protocol and a maintenance protocol in addition to text that explains how to perform each step;

requiring the user to indicate that each step of the at least one of an inspection protocol and a maintenance protocol was passed or completed for the entire at least one of an inspection protocol and a maintenance protocol to be indicated as passed in the database; and

storing the at least one of an inspection protocol and a maintenance protocol as failed absent an indication from the user that all of the steps of the at least one fan inspection protocol and a maintenance protocol have been passed or completed.