Engentus engineering crush safety

Western Australian innovation company Engentus was spawned from inventor Brian Bradshaw’s vision of a fastener that eliminates the risk of severe injuries and damaged equipment when removing bolted fasteners.

Large forces are often involved in installing and removing bolted fasteners.  Far too often, nuts will seize onto the bolt with onerous and risk-bound gas-axing, the only practical solution to remove the nut.

Building the first revolutionary lateral release nut in his workshop that he would call Segnut, he realised that he had engineered out the need for unsafe nut removal methods, which developed into the industry standard for safety, helping to improve the well-being of workers in heavy industries.

Following the Segnut, Engentus was formed in 2015, developing tools that put safety first while also increasing productivity.

The passion that led to Segnut inspired a complete life cycle tooling range, including the signature product, the TopTorque Precision Reactionless Bolting System.

Less Noise & Rattle and no hand-crush hazards

Impact wrenches, also known as “Rattle guns”, are commonly used to install and remove bolted fasteners.  However, they do not offer the level of torquing accuracy that is demanded in today’s maintenance practices and, true to their name, blasting an average of 105[1] decibels of noise, they are capable of causing irreversible hearing loss in less than five minutes of exposure.

Even worse, there is evidence that workers exposed to vibration and noise simultaneously are more likely to suffer hearing loss than workers exposed to the same noise level alone.

Exposure to both vibration and noise is also understood to increase musculoskeletal problems.

Whilst torque multiplier-type tools (aka nut-runners) offer a far superior alternative to rattle guns, they do require a reaction arm to counter the large forces involved in the bolting process – inherently creating a hand-crush hazard.  Hand injuries are the most common workplace injury and can have a devastating and long-lasting effect on injured workers.

Industry leaders and the new Work Health Safety regulations are demanding better solutions.

The quieter and safety-improved TopToque system builds upon Norbar’s proactive maintenance technology, incorporating safety, control and accountability.

Engentus Managing Director David Izzard says   “safety first design” is fundamental to helping to reduce workplace injuries.

“TopTorque was conceived at its outset as a step up in bolting accuracy and safety practices,” Mr Izzard explains.

“The changing landscape in Work Health Safety regulations requires everybody to identify and improve safe working practices.

“Inherently, the TopTorque system does this and brings a new level of precision and accountability to a wide range of industries.

“The lighter, smarter, and more flexible TopTorque tooling system enables today’s diverse workforce to perform critical maintenance functions that historically have required heavy manual handling and specialised skills.

“Engentus remains an engineered solutions focussed company and takes pride in developing strong and enduring partnerships such as with our product distribution partner Konnect Fastening Systems (part of the Coventry Group ASX: CGL); BHP WAIO; H&B Mining; Ready Resources; Elastomers; Joest and many others”.

Engentus has been shortlisted for the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety Work Health Safety Invention of the Year awards, to be announced on October 28.

[1] N.d., n.a, “Impact Wrench MODEL 6905B MODEL 6906”, Makita Corporation Anjo, Aichi, Japan

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