Hose Safety Institute aims at end users

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The head of NAHAD's Hose Safety Institute said the group is searching for ways to make sure end users of hose assemblies know exactly what the group is trying to accomplish.

Over the past couple of years, the institute has updated and consolidated its handbook and fabrication guides, including the 10 examinations associated with those, according to NAHAD Standards Director Debbie Mitchell.

“What we're really focusing on now is how to better engage the end users of our members and get the word out,” she said. “We want to get much more visibility out in the marketplace about what the Hose Safety Institute is and why they should care about it.” Mitchell discussed the institute during the annual meeting of the association for hose makers and distributors, held recently in Colorado Springs.

One way to do that is leverage the group's Advisory Council, which includes 12 members representing a number of different industries, she said. That includes an effort to produce white papers that are based on a topic that normally involves employee safety or environmental concerns associated with potential spills or accidents.

The first one was on hydro blasting, where hose products have to stand pressures as high as 40,000 psi. She said there are severe implications for users if the hose assembly fails.

A second paper focused on liquid vacuum operation, which targeted both employee safety and environmental spills. “If you're vacuuming up liquids that are horribly injurious to the environment, you don't want to have a hose or hose assembly failure at that stage of the game,” Mitchell said.

She added that the papers were a collective effort where the issues involved in the problem first were laid out. The group then put together a series of educational pieces stating what the problem is and what the best practices are to address it.

The white papers are available to anyone as a free download. “I've had hundreds of downloads from interested people worldwide for both of those white papers,” Mitchell said. “It's a great way to get more visibility both for the institute and for the hose assembly guide-lines and those who do business that way.”

NAHAD also is working on other tools, she said, to enable members to serve their customers better, including an app that would give members instant access to the safety handbook, all the white papers and a variety of other resources.

Mitchell understands that some NAHAD members wish the process moved quicker, a point brought out during an industry panel held during the convention. “There's always frustration when people have a vision of how it could be,” she said. “Part of the art and science of all of this is how do you do something in a consensus mode that meets the expectations and needs of the majority rather than one or two people who have a vision of how they think it should go.”

She said part of her job is trying to mediate the various ideas and come up with a solution that works, and that's always going to take time. “I would love to move a lot faster on a number of these things, but part of our concern as well is to ensure that members really are working with the hose assembly guidelines and the best practices, so that being a member of the institute means something.”

While some members said changes within the industry feel glacial at times, Mitchell said it is eye-opening to look back and see what progress the group has made in the past decade.

“The difference between the spec manuals we published back in 2005 and the handbook we have today, there is tremendously more value-add in terms of the handbook,” she said. “This has been a process over time of not only developing the hose assembly guidelines, best practices and reach a consensus around that, but also figuring out how to apply that to business on the street.”

She knows there is plenty of room to grow, but said there is good support for the program within NAHAD members. “People are very passionate and fanatical at times about this, which is great. There are a number of members who have really taken this on and are totally committed to help drive the process and share what works and what doesn't at a practical level. Being able to tap that group and make sure everybody feels like they have a voice in what they feel is important for the program and where things are going, that's chiefly what I am focused on.”