BEYOND SURFACES

Rising to the challenge Following a pilot phase at the German sites of Oerlikon Balzers and Oerlikon Manmade Fibers, Oerlikon expanded the use of the SafeZone distance-warning technology from Munich-based start-up Kinexon. The solution is now in use in Switzerland at the Oerlikon Metco Site in Wohlen and is scheduled to be deployed across the global Oerlikon network. “As a company, our top priority is to offer our employees a safe working environment,” explains CEO Dr. Roland Fischer. “The Corona pandemic is pre- senting us with new challenges that affect our work processes as much as our daily lives. With the transponders, we see a reliable, simple and safe solution to protect our employees in their working environment.” SafeZone allows the distance between employees to be mea- sured with centimeter accuracy. Employees wear a sensor either on their wrist or as a tag. If two sensors fall below the defined minimum distance for a certain period of time, a warning tone sounds. By wearing a SafeZone sensor, employees can dispense with face masks for activities that do not require close cooperation if they are not required by occu- pational safety law. In the event of an infection, software enables contact chains to be tracked precisely. Compliance with data protection regulations is ensured by separating the data for the numbers of the sensors from the names of the sensor carriers. www.kinexon.com Scan the qr-code to watch the video or visit: bit.ly/safezone-2 pRoTeCTIon wITh InnovATIve dISTAnCe-wARnIng TeChnology Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Oerlikon has relied on an innovative technical solution to protect its employees from infections during operations. Beyond SURFACeS 02|2020 22