Guardhat Adds Gas Monitoring from RKI Instruments to their Connected Worker Platform

Gas monitoring integration adds critical, life-saving functionality to the Guardhat platform, expands partner ecosystem

Guardhat, a pioneer of end-to-end connected worker solutions, announced today an integration with the GX-3R Pro gas detector from RKI Instruments, Inc.

The number of lone workers in the United States has dramatically increased over the past two years, especially with the pandemic forcing many employees to work remotely. OSHA defines a lone worker as ‘an employee working alone, such as in a confined space or isolated location.’ Hazards within confined spaces require a gas monitor to identify potential explosive, toxic, or oxygen deficient atmospheres.

Integrating the GX-3R Pro gas detector from RKI Instruments into the Guardhat Platform allows users to immediately respond to exposure threats to individual workers in real-time before incidents occur, as well as aggregate and analyze exposure trends for actionable intelligence to improve worker safety and operations.

The GX-3R Pro gas detector from RKI is the smallest and lightest portable multi-gas monitor with Bluetooth on the market. Weighing less than five ounces, it is rich in features. It can detect up to five gases simultaneously – including standard confined-space gases: LEL, O2, CO, & H2S – and an optional fifth channel for ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen dioxide, phosphine, sulfur dioxide, or carbon dioxide. It has a non-compliance indicator, SOS panic alarm, and worker-down alarm with audible, visual and vibration alerts.

“Connecting our personal gas monitors into the Guardhat Platform will provide our customers with a more immediate awareness of the dangers facing their workers” said Bob Pellissier, president at RKI Instruments. “Gas exposure information is translated into real-time alerts and location awareness beyond the worker, to internal support teams or EMS personnel for immediate, preventative intervention as well as PPE compliance. This data is crucial for worker safety, but also provides capabilities to manage fleets of instruments.”

Nirmal Chudgar, chief product officer at Guardhat, added, “With RKI, Guardhat customers gain a new dimension of threat detection in a system where workplace threats can be visualized, managed, and recorded in a single view with the safety of people as our organizing principle, versus devices or data tracking. We share a common mission with RKI – to save lives. Industrial organizations want to remove friction between the safety of their workforce and their production goals. Providing a one-stop shop for safety solutions in place of disconnected sensors and devices that don’t talk to each other helps improve and streamline safety and makes it easier for workers to do their jobs.”

GX-3R Pro gas detection instruments integrated with the Guardhat Platform will be generally available in early Q2 2022, directly through Guardhat or through the RKI distributor channel. Pilot and demo programs are available now.