"Imagine: a digital safety guard that never tires, can look in areas inaccessible to humans, and which responds immediately if there is a threat of danger." This is how Thielo Hammer describes the innovation that he and his team have developed: INARA, the world's first digital safety guard for monitoring critical work. In an interview, Hammer explains how INARA increases efficiency in industrial plants, while simultaneously raising safety standards to a whole new level.

What exactly is INARA and how can the system raise industrial safety to a new level?

INARA is the world's first digital safety guard. It is a battery-powered, explosion-protected system that we can place in critical work areas. With its cameras and gas sensors, INARA constantly monitors the environment, enables voice communication, and knows who is in the work area. If critical work, such as welding processes, is in progress and the system identifies a danger, for instance if the ambient air becomes potentially explosive, it immediately stops the work and initiates an evacuation.

What are the benefits of these kinds of digital solutions?
INARA provides entirely new opportunities in work safety. For the very first time, we can see inside work areas that a human safety guard cannot even access. This allows dangers to be identified early on and preventive action to be taken more quickly. For example, when inspecting containers, we can look directly inside to monitor the working conditions. This has not been possible before. What's more, INARA offers our customers much greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The system can be deployed based on your specific operational requirements. Imagine you need 50 or 100 safety guards. With INARA, we can simply keep the systems on standby and deploy them immediately when needed. INARA does not generate any costs when not in use. It does not need to be housed or transported, it just needs to remain charged and is immediately ready for use.

Which areas of industry will particularly benefit from digital safety guards and why?
Currently, the primary areas of application are refineries, petrochemical plants, and the chemical industry. Energy suppliers and power plant operators are also showing increasing interest in our solution. The typical application scenarios are diverse: from the classic monitoring of critical work such as welding processes and work at heights to confined space entries and monitoring of larger work areas. A particularly exciting new field of application has recently emerged in England: the police are interested in using INARA to monitor sewer systems during major events or state visits. This shows just how versatile our system is.

INARA is a complete service concept – our customers rent the hardware as well as the personnel who operate the system.
INARA allows us to offer this service worldwide, regardless of the availability of safety guards. This is particularly valuable for multinational companies with locations in different countries. We are taking a huge burden off our customers: our service model lets them focus entirely on their core processes. We take care of everything, from setup to maintenance. We not only provide the technology, but also the trained personnel for operation and maintenance. Our operators are specially trained and can monitor several INARA systems simultaneously. This means a huge reduction in complex safety logistics, particularly for companies whose core business is the production of chemicals or fuels.