BILLY PUGH X-904 PERSONNEL TRANSFER DEVICE
BILLY PUGH X-904 PERSONNEL TRANSFER DEVICE :
- Every year Billy Pugh Personnel nets are involved in millions (we roughly estimate 3 to 4 million) of offshore personnel transfers (all over the world) with VERY few mishaps or accidents.
- One main reason (is that) when someone is riding a personnel net, they “concentrate” on what they are doing
- Over the last few years, many of the majors are making an effort to take the “human factor” out of safety equation; riding a personnel net looks dangerous and does require that the rider and the crane operator stay heavily involved in this equation i.e. human factor.
- Recently, other types of personnel transfer carriers have been introduced to the market with some success. The feedback from the field can pretty much be summed up with the following points:
They like the current personnel net and don’t want to change (it has worked safely and reliably for many years).
The don’t like the idea of being strapped in (especially in a sitting position).
They don’t like the fact that they cannot get in and out immediately for rapid debarkation.
The units are large and difficult to store and ship compared to a personnel net.
The units are very expensive relative to what operators and contractors are used to paying.
This is not to say that there is not significant merit to some of the things that the new design brings to the table.
-If a person is ill or unsure they are less likely to fall out of this design.
-The unit provides side impact protection.
-The unit provides some overhead protection.
-The challenge was to keep as many of the features of the personnel net as possible but include some of the advantages of the other unit. We made an effort to keep it looking and performing as much as possible like what the offshore employee is used to.