Optimus Red: Calibrate, switch on and download

Gavin Johnson, Environmental Health & Safety & Site Services Manager, has full H&S responsibility for the 30,000 sq ft Bradford site including the busy machine shop. He took the decision to buy an Cirrus Research Optimus Red sound level meter, as well as a doseBadge personal dosimeter, when he wanted to have more flexibility to conduct tests when and as often as he wished; rather than have to rely on an external consultant to come on site.

“At Lindapter’s ISO9001 accredited production facility, the noise levels naturally vary depending on type of machinery operating at any one time, however due to the high levels of productivity, the incremental differences are quite small which makes it even more important that we can gauge them accurately,” he said.

“We found that the Optimus Red and the doseBadge complemented each other very nicely. The information we get from the Optimus is particularly important; we can measure for 10 minutes and that can be extrapolated out so we can have a very accurate estimate on what the exposure will be over several hours. It also showed how much people actually move around, which we weren’t aware of, which was very useful.

“With the Optimus Red, you calibrate, switch on and then download the results at the end – the hardest part is deciding which folder to store your results in!”