Demolition News is backing the Quick Switch semi-automatic hitch safety alarm.
Objectivity is one of the foundations upon which the traditional journalistic trade is built. In 20+ years writing about demolition and construction equipment for trade magazines, I have never allowed my personal opinion to cloud my writing, regardless how good or bad I thought a particular product.
However, as a “blogger” I am under no such constraints; and when I see a product that could potentially save lives and remove a huge amount of confusion from an industry that remains puzzled over the use of semi-automatic quick hitches, I have no hesitation in backing it 100%. (Interestingly, my endorsement is shared by someone with a far greater knowledge of the subject, NFDC chief executive Howard Button).
I have added a copy of the company’s press release at the foot of this item but, to be honest, the two videos tell the story far better than the words. Quite simply, it is a system that warns the operator when a quick hitch retaining pin isn’t inserted correctly. Simple. And with an installed cost of around £600, it is a viable and potentially life-saving solution to an ongoing problem.
Interview with inventor, Tony Bianchi
Footage from press conference
Press Release
Quick Switch UK has unveiled a new quick hitch safety pin warning device that has been developed specifically to address the issue of accidents caused by buckets and other attachments becoming unexpectedly detached from their carrier machine due to the failure or misuse of what is commonly known as a semi-automatic quick coupler.
The Background
Following a spate of accidents and four fatalities between December 2006 and November 2007, the Health and Safety Executive brokered a deal that has seen European manufacturers cease production of semi-automatic hitches. However, that agreement is not retrospective, leaving tens of thousands of these quick couplers in day-to-day use on UK construction, demolition and quarry sites.
“The semi-automatic quick coupler is an intrinsically safe product when it is used correctly,” says Quick Switch inventor and company founder Tony Bianchi. “But all too often, operators are failing to manually insert the retaining pin, leaving buckets and attachments prone to becoming disconnected from the machine.” According to Health and Safety Executive statistics, “approximately 13 percent of all accidents investigated on excavators are attributed to the bucket detaching from a quick hitch and injuring a ground worker. These are mostly fatal and major injuries. However, there may be many more dangerous occurrences that occur when a bucket detaches unintentionally from the hitch, but without injury because no-one is underneath at the time. This means that quick hitch failures are relatively common.
Although industry and media speculation has focused upon semi automatic hitches, there remains a similar concern over some of the more advanced automatic hitches, with mud, rubble and other contaminants blocking the locking latch and rendering them as potentially unsafe as their semi-automatic cousins.
The Solution
Against this background, Hertfordshire-based plant and demolition veteran Tony Bianchi has invented and developed the Quick Switch system, a safety pin detection device that utilises state-of-the-art sensor technology from a world-leading sensor manufacturer. The system works via a sensor located by the safety pin aperture of a semi-automatic hitch. This in turn detects the presence or absence of the required retaining pin. Acting as a mini metal detector, the system is not fooled by mud or other contaminants that might block the retaining pin aperture, nor by the insertion of lengths of reinforcing steel bar, aluminium or other “make-do” measures.
This sensor is linked to a warning device in the machine’s cab that gives off an audible alarm and displays an ultra-bright flashing red LED if the operator attempts to use the machine without the correct pin in place. While the pin is in place, the operator will see a simple green LED indicator. “Because the sensor has quite a specific sensing range, we have used this to our advantage by installing the bracket and sensor in such a way that the correct sized pin has to be used,” Bianchi explains. “An under-sized, inappropriate or temporary pin will not be detected or only detected intermittently, thereby activating the alarms.”
Thoroughly Researched & Tested
Developed over the past two years and with some 12,000 live test hours under its belt, the Quick Switch system is more than merely a knee-jerk reaction to the current furore over the use of semi-automatic quick hitches. It meets the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 and the essential health and safety requirements contained within it.
“The sensor comes from the factory with an Environmental Protective rating of IP69K. With our additional bracket and conduit arrangement the highest degree of protection is ensured. The system has been designed for optimum shock and vibration resistance and it has an extended temperature range of -40° to +85° C ensuring it can operate in either Antarctic or Saharan conditions. The system has a lot more to it than meet s the eye and we have had to meet very stringent standards and regulations. Of course this is only too right given the vital job it is there to do. It has taken a lot of time and money to ensure that we have got it right” Bianchi asserts. “In short, it has been designed to withstand everything that a construction, demolition or quarry site can throw at it.”
Other Benefits
Although it has been designed specifically to address the issue of operator’s failing to engage the retaining pin, the 12,000+ hours of site testing has thrown up some additional and previously unforeseen benefits, according to Tony Bianchi. For example, there is now a strong motivation to ensure that the safety pin does not go missing. “There should be no more lost pins with this system. Because of the nature of the warning the pin should rarely, if ever, get lost,” Bianchi says. “The operator tends to remember where the safety pin is if he is the one who has to listen to the siren because he has tracked it into the mud.”
Bianchi further reports that the system can also act as a plant theft deterrent against opportunist thieves. “Removing the pin at night can be beneficial as an anti-theft alarm. An opportunist attempt at robbery or kids trying to drive a machine for fun will result in the external siren going off unexpectedly. This should be a deterrent. The system is NOT being sold as an anti-theft device; that is simply a by-product. But we are actively exploring other avenues of development that do lead off from here.”
Further information from Tony Bianchi, Quick Switch UK on Tel: 01923 267 608
