Low air warning bell for air-operated tools
A motor vehicle accident.
Rescue activity is at its peak. The driver of the automobile has just been extricated from the wreckage. Attention now focuses on the teenager still trapped inside the twisted vehicle.
Fire department rescue technicians, using an air chisel, are attempting to disentangle the young girl.
Suddenly, the rescue’s progress comes to an unanticipated halt. The air cylinder supplying the chisel has run out of air.
Many times, rescue personnel are absorbed by the urgency of an incident, and with a minimum of manpower, all members are committed to various activities, leaving no one to monitor the air supply flowing to air-powered tools (rescue bags, impact wrenches, air chisels). Valuable time could be lost while air cylinders are being changed. For fire departments that operate their air tools exclusively off SCBA cylinders, the loss of air supply is an even more frequent problem.
A simple, inexpensive solution to the unanticipated depletion of a tool’s air supply is found on old SCBA. The low-pressure audible warning bell unit taken off out-of-service SCBA can be installed in the air supply line between the rescue tool’s air cylinder and regulator. The bell unit will sound at 25 percent of cylinder volume as originally designed for SCBA, immediately signaling the air-powered tool operator that the air supply is being exhausted. Fresh cylinders can then be readied quickly for changing.
Experienced rescue personnel can tell without looking at any gage that the air supply is getting low, noting that tools get sluggish in their operation. The advantage of the old SCBA warning bell is that it activates before there is any appreciable loss of the rescue tool’s effectiveness. The bell continues to ring, providing a constant audible notice to operating personnel.
If your rescue company has any air-powered rescue tools and you operate them off individual air cylinders, try adapting the low-air warning bell unit to your tool setup. The next time the bell rings, you’ll be ready.
