Industrial Scientifics iNet to Simplify Gas DetectionProgram for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

PITTSBURGH 24 Jul 2006 Industrial Scientific Corporation, a global leader in gas detection and monitoring instruments, systems and related services, has announced that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has selected the iNet Instrument Network to automate the maintenance and management of its fleet of gas detectors.

Industrial Scientifics iNet Instrument Network is a total-cost-of-ownership program that eliminates the most cost-intensive and time-consuming tasks involved with managing a gas monitor fleet.

The iNet solution will solve a lot of the issues we had related to maintenance and record-keeping of our gas monitoring equipment, which is deployed over twelve different plants, said Mark Landgaard, industrial hygienist for Metropolitan District.

With its focus on safety, continuous improvement, and reporting requirements, Metropolitan has historically been one of the safest utilities in the nation. One of our biggest concerns was the cost of having to keep a large number of back-up monitors due to the lag in third party repair and maintenance work, Landgaard said. The iNet program enables us to streamline our gas monitoring fleet with half the instrument inventory, significant cost savings and no instrument downtime. Metropolitans gas monitor fleet is now at 172 instruments. From an equipment management standpoint, the volume of this reduction has provided immediate benefits for their safety program.

Combining the two-way communication technology of Industrial Scientific’s DS2 Docking Station and the capabilities of the Internet, iNet continually monitors for conditions such as low, empty or expired calibration gas, marginal or failed sensors, and days since last calibration. Weekly e-mail reports are sent on the status of the instrument fleet and immediate reports are sent when a problem is detected.

A number of options are available to handle service requirementts, and Metropolitan selected the iNet Exchange Program. Should a malfunction occur, iNet will initiate the delivery of a ready-to-use replacement monitor to any one of the Water Districts work sites. The original instrument is then sent back to Industrial Scientific in a prepaid shipping package.

We developed iNet to provide value that extends well beyond the convenience and time-saving benefits of the Docking Station, said Garth Miller, Industrial Scientific Vice President of Customer Services. When your gas detection equipment is monitored and serviced by the manufacturer, you can focus more resources toward your core business and dramatically increase productivity, he added.

Contact: Kay F. Mangieri, Director of Marketing kmangieri@indsci.com,
Phone: 1-800-338-3287 or (412) 788-4353