BREMERTON, Wash. –
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility has completed installing stand-alone infrared body temperature detectors at all gates into the controlled industrial area this week.
These stand-alone detectors should speed up the temperature screening process at each gate and will eliminate the need for PSNS & IMF workers to use hand-held thermometers.
The infrared detectors can be installed to allow people to walk through them like an airport metal detector, or they can be set up alongside a thoroughfare. When they are installed beside a walkway, the person being scanned stops walking, turns and faces the sensors that are located at both eye-level and waist-level, gets scanned and then continues walking in their original direction of travel.
“Employees will conduct their own temperature checks by placing their wrist or forehead within three to five inches of the temperature sensors on the infrared detectors,” said Scott Miller, division head, Code 980M, Production Engineering and Facilities Maintenance Programs. “A proximity sensor will read their temperature once they are close enough. The device will notify the screener of the temperature of the individual and alert them if the employee’s temperature is more than the pre-programed set point.”
According to Miller, woodcrafters from Shop 64 will be building climate-controlled spaces at all screening checkpoints to house the infrared detectors and allow gate screeners to monitor temperatures while being protected from inclement weather.
According to Miller, climate controlled spaces are designed to be easily moved with a forklift, which will allow PSNS & IMF to relocate them to other gates if foot traffic volume indicates an increased need at one gate versus another gate. Their portability will also allow them to be stored for future use when the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.
Since April 13, screeners have been asking employees as they enter the shipyard if they have completed their daily COVID-19 self-assessment. The gate screeners began checking the temperature of all people entering the controlled industrial area with no-touch, handheld thermometers, May 6.
The temperature checks and daily self-assessment were added to other health protection measures already in place – including facemasks, social distancing and good hygiene – known as the protective triad. This protective triad combined with temperature checks is designed to help protect the health of PSNS & IMF teammates, their loved ones and the local community.