Genie has entered into a licensing agreement with U.K.-based aerial work platform rental specialist Lavendon Group plc for its electric secondary guarding solution, also known as SkySiren, a system designed to alert ground personnel when an operator makes contact with the platform control panel. The system interrupts boom movement, sounds an alarm and causes a light to flash. Based on Lavendon’s Sky Siren technology, the Genie Operator Protective Alarm system can be retrofitted to any Genie articulating or telescopic boom lift manufactured after 2002.
The system, designed to protect against dangerous entrapment-type situations, is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible to operators and features a pressure-sensitive horizontal bar fitted at about waist height below the boomlift’s control panel. When pressure is placed on the bar, as might occur if an operator makes contact with an overhead obstacle, the system is activated. The system features a reset button that can be pressed in case the system is activated inadvertently.
Genie demonstrated the system at the Rental Show in Orlando this week.
Genie will continue to also offer its Operator Protective Structure introduced in 2012. The tubular steel structure is designed to transfer the kinetic energy into surrounding structures while maintaining a protected area for the operator. Both systems may be used together.
“Our customers requested an additional option for operator overhead protection and we are responding by offering the Genie Operator Protective Alarm,” said Frank Schneider, booms product manager for Terex Aerial Work Platforms. “By offering the OPA along with the Genie Operator Protective Structure, our customers will be able to configure the machine as appropriate to the jobsite conditions.”
