We bring in products which directly enhance the productivity and increase the efficiency of workers

Saurya Safety provides engineering control safety solutions and advanced technologies designed to protect indispensable assets "The people" within an organization. Their journey in the Indian safety market is driven to enhance efficiency and productivity. They continually strive to stay true to their core values of quality, integrity, and economy, ensuring that their customers receive globally renowned solutions tailored to their specific needs.Dipesh Shah, Director, Saurya HSE talks about their HSE solutions and their journey in India.

Interviewed by Adeesh Sharma.

Please share your experiences related to OSH in India, ever since you started in this industry

Saurya HSE was born in 2014. So we are fairly young but have decently matured as a company. Our association with OSH India Expo has been since 2014 and it’s been a great journey so far. We have a bucket of products in our company profile. This is because Safety works like a department store. When you enter a plant, there are different processes for different products. Each process leads to varying nature of hazards for the workforce. I mean if you go to a typical engineering industry, there is machining job, painting, finishing and powder coating, etc. There are different issues which need to be handled as far as workforce health and safety is concerned. What we realize is that you cannot just go with one solution. However, the customers need to deal with a few vendors with multiple products so that they get to know the right processes. At Saurya HSE, we focus on engineering controls, which in the Safety hierarchy are placed above the personal protective equipment.

It means that by giving a particular solution in that particular process, you are avoiding or removing the chances of any kind of injury to happen and so you might not even require the PPE to come to your rescue. Such an approach is an indirect way of helping the worker and keeping them safe. But with that considered as a liability to an organization, there is always the debate of safety budgets. When we floated this company, we decided to bring in products which directly show the productivity and which increase the efficiency of the workers.

Any innovations in your products that you would like to highlight over here for the audience, with regard to first, the engineering controls and secondly, any other product that you believe is a showcase of your organization?

We are a pioneer in India to bring safety cutters. Now every organization needs to cut boxes, chemical bags or maybe big rolls or rubber sheets, or any kind of PVC foils. At the home or office also we do a lot of papers and envelopes. We may be using a simple knife to open eCommerce boxes at home. But you see the struggle when you open the box. There are two risks involved. One definitely with the knife or the knife getting into reverse action mode, which hurts the person and parallely also with the use of knife or standard cutters, there is a chance that it leads to damage of goods also.

So we brought in the range of safety cutters where basically the blades don't get exposed to the human skin. We have more than 100 styles of 50 cutters for various applications with very good ergonomics. So it is definitely safer tool to use and plus it also increases the efficiency.

Or maybe if a worker is doing say 30 boxes in an hour and if he's cutting in the store of an organization then he will be doing atleast 40 to 45 numbers. So, imagine the amount of efficiency and also the safety to the life of the cutter.

We are also pioneering to bring this technology called Safety Airguns. In various production plants, there is a compressed air line which is used for running various pneumatic tools. The same air is unfortunately used in most of the plants by the workers to clean their bodies and there have been many fatalities as a result.

Now the inside the compressed air line, there could be some metal particles which might pass through because of the pressure. When a person uses compressed air to clean the other person, that particle might pierce the body of the other person just like a bullet does. As part of the the engineering control to alleviate this issue, the nozzles are designed in such a way that in case some particle tries to go through it, then the nozzle blocks the air below 30 PSI. Normally it is 100 PSI pressure in the air line in the plant, but for humans it is safest to have less than 30 PSI.

One more point which I would like to add is regarding confined spaces. Most people need to go through a small opening to clean tanks like an oil and gas tank. However, you will not feel comfortable while sitting in there even for a few moments and so we are providing the best-in-class confined space ventilators to alleviate this issue. The workers use our proper ventilators when they clean and the whole process becomes much more safe and fast.

At Saurya Safety, we understand the paramount importance of safeguarding the workforce in Indian industries. That's why we offer a comprehensive range of innovative safety solutions designed to mitigate risks and protect employees in various workplace environments. Some of the technologies are listed below

Martor Safety Cutters -: The most comfortable and efficient cutting solutions that can reduce the number of cut-related injuries and also cleverly protect your goods. Robust ergonomic design perfectly fits in any hand. Lowers Fatigue & improves productivity.

Coppus Portable Ventilators & Reaction Fans for Vessel Entry in Confined Space -: We offer a compressed air-driven or Flameproof Electrical range of high-performance Coppus® portable ventilators. They are portable, lightweight and safe to use in hazardous environments and powerful enough to improve efficiency with a lifetime warranty.

Axel Thoms German Emergency Escape Chute System -: A modern and independent escape solution that is designed for the swift exit of people in emergencies. Easy to deploy, vertical descent with single exit, no electricity required, self-regulated descending speed, guaranteed smooth landing. For Buildings, Plants, Towers, Fire Turntable ladder trucks etc.

Techniche Cooling Vests -: Cooling Vests serve the purpose of cooling your workers, working in the heat and humidity of your plant.

Atexor Portable Lighting Solutions for confined space -: Superior illumination & Long lifetime with advanced LED – Technology, Ex-certified for Zones 1 and 21 at 24 Volts during shutdown.

Guardair Safety air guns -: They come without any danger for the operator while using them with compressed air for cleaning.Feature exceptional performance including protection from chip fly-back, noise suppression, and syphon capabilities. Designed for safe, and effective cleaning, the line includes a wide range of speciality air guns for a multitude of industrial applications. All meet OSHA Standards when cleaning with compressed air.

Guardair Pneumatic Vacuums-: The Pneumatic Cleaning Solution (PCS) is a safe-to-operate vacuum designed to clean dust, powders, and debris off workers’ clothing, machinery & equipment & other surfaces thereby eliminating the dangerous practice of self-cleaning with compressed air.

At Saurya Safety, we are committed to partnering with Indian industries to ensure the highest standards of safety for their workforce. Our technical advisors go on-site to analyse process requirements and recommend the ideal solutions. The training we provide, both on-site and digitally, increases product knowledge and improves efficiency and work safety.

We would also like to understand which industry segments you're targeting extensively going forward?

Our products find applications in different industry verticals. The safety cutters and wire cutters go into every industry from a retail chain to refinery, food n beverages to utilities and logistics, manufacturing, warehousing, etc. For the confined space ventilators our biggest clients are from oil and gas. Another important segment I would like to mention is multi-story building rescue operations.

In case of smoke or fire, if you are on a particular level in a building and you have limited or a single staircase to go down, then people can go down through the window by deploying safety chutes which are fixed in their windows. Such safety chutes have capacity to carry a total load varying from 3.4 tonnes to 14 tonnes. We've been doing this for various large corporations and industries range from construction to warehousing to retail and refinery.

In a nutshell, at Saurya Safety, we are dedicated to provide safety solutions across diverse industry verticals, ensuring every workforce is protected and every workplace is safe. Our comprehensive safety products cater to the unique needs of sectors such as manufacturing, construction, oil and gas, mining, chemical and petrochemical, healthcare, automotive, food and beverage, utilities, logistics and warehousing. We offer engineering control safety solutions to meet the specific challenges of each industry, enhancing worker well-being and operational efficiency in turn improving the profitability of the organization.

In these last 10 years, what changes have you observed in the HSE scenario in India in the attitude of people who are responsible for complying with HSE within their organizations?

To give you a perspective, in the past, God forbid if a fatality occurred to an American worker, then maybe the compensation to an American worker was, 100,000 U.S. dollars. For a European worker that would be anywhere between €50,000 to €80,000. In India, the worker was always given a harsh deal with compensation ranging from half a million to one million rupees, that too many times the management tried to evade or evoke or find a way to escape paying up as people considered there is no value of human life in India.

However, the scenario has changed now. The managements now consider their workers as assets for the skills they possess and also for the loss of production in case they need to take a long sick leave. To get immediate replacement of a trained manpower is not going to be an overnight thing which we all know in an organization. This realization has now come to an Indian entrepreneur. That is why I am seeing that there is a change.

Any important aspect related to HSE or any Safety message that you would like to share with the readers?

It should have been at the forefront always, but still many times safety is an afterthought. So that change in culture is what we need to educate people and I think the practice of safety should be at the academic level. So young professionals such as engineers should be taught the basics of safety as part of their curricula. Such level of awareness of safety is required to alter the fundamental behavior towards how it’s viewed in professional life.