Anticipating a move towards Smart health monitoring in the workplace, sanding specialist Mirka has issued its ‘Our Clean Commitments’ Sustainability Report which focuses on the possibilities of digitalisation, so that it can offer its customers intelligent tool solutions that generate added value, while also assisting in safeguarding workers’ health.

Smart, wearable technology may have a significant impact on the workplace across various industries over the next few years and by 2025 it is expected that people will become increasingly reliant on digital health monitoring and advice dispensed by machine algorithms according to The Foresight Report, published by the UK Health and Safety Executive.

Working closely with its customers, the Mirka R&D department in Jeppo, Finland has developed the myMirka dashboard to enable businesses to monitor and measure the working environment through the myWorkplace section of the dashboard with the help of different sensors in the workplace. As part of the continued evolution of the system, Mirka will introduce sensors across its tools range for connecting to the dashboard and can easily integrate customers’ own sensors to the dashboard as well.

Some examples are related to safety such as the myTools part of the dashboard which shows the running hours, motor and PCB card temperatures, speed etc, which are important predictive maintenance indicators. There is also considerable automated equipment used in the workplace, myMirka dashboard services also allow these systems to be connected with help of APIs, so the customer can easily see from one view that their equipment is safe to use.

In addition, when its electric sanders are connected with an operator, Mirka can monitor and follow how the operator is using the tool. If the speed and motor temperature are not at the recommended levels, the operator might be using the tool the wrong way, which is potentially dangerous from both a health and safety standpoint. If this is the case, Mirka can offer the business more training on how to use the tools to correct these issues.

Craig Daycock, Managing Director of Mirka says, “We understand how smart devices for health and safety are increasingly being used by the companies we work with, which is why we are continuing to invest in both intelligent tools and software to help protect our customers from injuries such as HAVs and educate them on the potential risks as well. The myMirka dashboard allows you to monitor the whole exposure history of the operator and gives instant access to facts, figures and information in a digital form.”