Products
Safeguard Equipment’s Compass not just for power utility applications

Safeguard Equipment’s Compass is a piece of technology tailored to making utility as well as first responder jobs safer, according to the company’s founders. It is useful to anyone working or responding to scenes near energized power systems as it provides them with the ability to actually see voltage and current.

Once as large as a laptop computer, it’s now the size of a stick of gum, the company notes.

Compass is not only able to detect voltage and current; it is engineered to be attached easily to the underside of a person’s hard hat – essentially allowing it to become personal protective equipment (PPE). Compass then provides proximity alerts for voltage and current long before its user comes in contact with a threat. In addition, it also shows the approximate direction of the energized conductor.

“Applications where Compass is most useful include dealing with downed powerlines after storms,” according to a safety expert for a power utility company located on the West Coast, as quoted by Safeguard Equipment. “The wires can be buried in trees and under snow, or, in some cases, you are in situations where you need to assess an outage. Having Compass at your disposal in these scenarios is critically helpful.”