A personal gas detector is an expensive but vital safety measure. SG Safety (Vestteknikk) has manufactured a practical rubber cover for the popular device, so the user achieves extra safety against damaging impacts and malfunctions.
SG Safety (Vestteknikk) is one of Norway’s largest suppliers of technical safety equipment. The core areas are gas, breathing equipment and fire – and in addition to selling some of the market’s leading products, SG Safety also provides advice, training and service/maintenance for the safety equipment.
SG Safety has great success in selling an advanced, personal gas detector from the Blackline brand. It is in every way a good and solid product, but like all other electronic devices, the gas detector can be vulnerable to hard impacts.
Gas detectors are used precisely in confined, exposed conditions in close contact with hard concrete floors, wall surfaces, steel beams, stairs and other harsh construction components. There is a high risk of accidental shocks here, and should an accident occur and a gas leak occur, the detector’s alarm system must also function after the impact of a person falling.
Sales manager Rune Hansen and his colleagues know these potential risks and sensed that many customers were concerned with achieving the greatest possible level of security. At a trade fair in Stavanger, Rune and Betech’s Norwegian sales manager met each other.
Rune had an idea to create a shock-absorbing cover for the gas detector – similar to those you find on mobile phones, for example. He just didn’t know how to actually make it happen. Shortly after the trade show, the two met again, and the idea was quickly turned into a realistic product solution.
A quality detector costs around 5,000 NOK, so it is not unlikely that customers will pay something to achieve additional protection for the device, but there are of course limits to what such an accessory must cost.
With the help of Betech, some technical considerations were made regarding a suitable silicone quality and the costs of the mold tooling, so that the cover could be put into a suitable series production. The preliminary study resulted in a realistic product calculation, and SG Safety decided quickly to start the development work.
Betech performed a 3D scan of the gas detector for use in the product drawing that forms the basis for the manufacture of the mold tool. In the project, a cheaper prototype tool was also manufactured, so it was possible to test and adjust the design before the actual mass production began.
With the unique cover, SG Safety can offer its customers an extra level of safety for their already appreciated safety equipment. This makes good sense for the end user, and the cover has therefore become a popular add-on product at SG Safety – and moreover a product that they are the only ones to offer.
Die-casting – i.e., the production of functional parts of rubber and silicone – can be more or less complex depending on the design of the item, the functional requirements, and the required manufacturing process.
In this case, Betech has managed the project from start to finish, and this has included all phases such as solution proposals and calculations regarding market opportunities, selection of suitable compounds, assessment of tools, production of prototype tools, production of final tools, and stable deliveries from series production.
