Interview with Stanislav Mihaylov, Manager at Delta Instruments
Mr. Mihailov, what made you decide to take part in the international “NO Accidents” forum?
What caught my attention is the precise and targeted topic of accidents avoidance in the industry by utilizing technologies for automated monitoring, which is unfortunately still not broadly established in Bulgaria. I hope that the conference will provoke interest, discussions and thinking towards the undeniable advantages and accordingly the need of taking proactive measures to automatically maintain all critical points in any industrial process within norms, i.e. to minimize risk, in contrast to the usually late and ineffective reactions in case of an occurred accident.
The more automation there is in such preventative maintenance, the less there are risks and damages from accidents.
What solutions and innovations will you present and in which areas are they applicable?
Our company has provided a variety of measurement, detection and control equipment and monitoring systems for the industry for decades. A main part of that have always been our stationary gas detection systems for hazardous concentrations of explosive and toxic gases.
Recently we became distribution partners of the Dutch company WatchGas, to provide innovative and reliable portable gas detectors for personal protection, thus complementing our range of solutions with even stronger accent on personnel’s health and safety. The new series of WatchGas include exceptionally reliable and inexpensive multi-gas detectors that can monitor up to 4 gases simultaneously, as well as such that allow battery and sensors replacement to prolong their lifetime repeatedly. Using different sensing technologies, the variations of their portable gas detectors cover a multitude of different gases and applications.
There are many processes requiring work with different hazardous gases, so I will just mention a small part of the possible applications: distilleries, refineries, paint shops, water treatment plants, chemical plants, underground garages and tunnels, gas supply installations, gas stations, batteries storage, etc.
A second emphasis of our participation will be online monitoring systems for temperature and humidity, which are becoming more and more a requirement in industrial fields that operate with materials sensitive to humidity and temperature – pharmacy, food and beverage, electronics manufacturing, greenhouses, chemical plants, etc.
Tell us more about their practical implementation.
I don’t think there is any room for compromises when it comes to monitoring hazardous gases in the air and alarming and control in case of critical concentrations. The results of a hypothetical accident could be fatal for the involved personnel and equipment. Apart from the alarm, the possibility to automatically and instantly trigger ventilation, open vents or take other actions for aeration, could be the only chance for prevention of an explosion, fire or poisoning.
And having a constantly active portable gas detector with them, personnel can always feel safe and focus on their work without worries. Using infrared sensors for some gas types, the detectors are more resistant to gassing, consume less power and thus have a much longer lifetime.
In regard to the monitoring of humidity and temperature, the benefits are various, but mostly it’s about minimizing risk of unsuitable (damaged) production and storage lots, and the warranty from taking liability in case an accident happens. Accidents in this case could be the result of supplying damaged products, which could be fatal, when it comes to medicines and food.
Which companies are your clients?
The number of our customers for gas alarm systems is constantly increasing in Bulgaria and on the Balkans. These are mostly engineering companies like Start Engineering, Stimex, Tassy, Vilmat, etc., but also most central heating distributors and TPPs, Sofia Water, Overgas, Bulgartransgas, Insa Oil, KCM, Aurubis, Agropolychim, Sensata Technologies, distilleries, etc.
Please share some of your future plans for development.
We and WatchGas will continue to develop our models of gas alarm systems according to modern world tendencies, using new sensing technologies, which allow for ever improving reliability and precision of the measurement, as well as the possibility for detecting even more exotic gases and vapours.
Thanks to the technology advancements we will provide more and more variations of combined gas detectors in the future, and in this way save materials, space and respectively costs to our customers.
Another direction, in which we will be improving our equipment, is real-time communication using various modern protocols, in order to connect to online monitoring and SCADA systems with central database, in a way similar to the ones for monitoring humidity and temperature. It’s almost the same principle with the distinction that gas alarm systems will always retain their level of autonomous automation, in order to react as quickly and reliably as possible to critical situations.
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More about DELTA INSTRUMENTS
The company is a trusted partner for measurement and control to more than 1800 companies from industrial fields such as energy production, metallurgy, chemical industry, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industry, etc. in Bulgaria and abroad.
It is a leading manufacturer and distributor of a wide range of measurement, control and automation equipment for industrial and energy parameters and processes, including transmitters, converters, transducers, protection barriers, programmable indicators and controllers, data loggers and analysers, gas alarm systems, portable testers, and complex systems for monitoring and control.