Casella CEL, offers the CEL-350 dBadge micro noise dosimeter. Amazingly compact, this breakthrough safety tool is designed to measure the noise exposure of an employee over the working day to uncover dangerous areas and to assure compliance with strict OSHA, NIOSH or ISO (European) regulations.
Many industrial professionals have tried personal dose badges and found they compromise performance for a smaller size. Casella CEL has answered these limitations by engineering the new CEL-350 dBadge with the features that the others lack, such as a built-in display, a cable-free architecture, simultaneous measurement of both OSHA and ISO parameters, and faster battery recharging, all contained within a small, unobtrusive housing that weighs just 2 oz.
Unlike with conventional sound exposure meters, an employee can comfortably wear the CEL-350 dBadge all day by attaching it to a shirt, overalls or hardhat. There are no microphone cables to damage or get caught up in, nor is other external equipment required. In fact, the instrument is operated with only two buttons located on its side. Auto-calibration is performed with any standard acoustic calibrator – no other setup is needed.
Once in operation, the unit captures a time history for every noise event, including average noise level and peak value, which is logged in one-minute values for later analysis. Its 64 KB memory stores up to 180 hours of data.
Another key to the success of the dBadge is its built-in display, a first for dosimeters its size. The display makes it easy to perform calibration, while also providing status information and key measured data. In addition, there is an ultra-bright LED that gives a visual indication of when exposure action levels have been exceeded by flashing at different rates.
Industrial hygienists or safety officers looking to perform analysis of workplace noise begin by downloading the measurements stored in the CEL-350 dBadge into a PC. Report templates supplied with the dB35 database software supplied with the unit allow for generation of user-defined databases. Data is viewed according to ISO and OSHA measurement protocols, or in displays customized to a specific user’s own requirements. For larger organizations, data can be shared with colleagues anywhere in the world using the software’s import and export feature. It can also be imported into different programs for reporting.
The CEL-350 dBadge is a robust instrument engineered to withstand the wear and tear associated with industrial environments. It is manufactured using the same material as is used in many automobile bumpers. Also, since the controls can be locked, the risk of tampering or misuse is considerably reduced.
Along with the standard CEL-350 dBadge, Casella CEL offers an Intrinsically Safe version for hazardous locations such as mines, petrochemical plants and paint factories.
The unit’s built-in NiMH rechargeable battery pack will run for up to 32 hours, giving four 8-hour shifts under normal conditions. Recharging takes only 90 minutes.
Casella, www.casellausa.com