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NORTHERN MICHIGAN INDUSTRIAL CONTRACTOR INTRODUCES SMARTANCHOR™

When a construction worker who is the head of the household is seriously injured or killed, there is a tremendous burden placed upon the entire community.  On average 400 people die each year and 135,000 people are injured as a result from scaffolding and ladder-related injuries.  Even if only 1% of those injured people become disabled that would equate to roughly 54 Million dollars of subsistence needed compounding each year to support the injured worker and their family.  The portable ladder is the most dangerous construction tool – 34% of all deaths on construction sites were from falls!

Further, there is a prevalent mindset accepted by the general population that construction workers have accidents and get hurt.

We honor our tradesmen and created the Springfield Ladder Anchor to address fall related deaths and injuries, which in turn, reduces the strain on the social infrastructures in our communities and throughout the state.

The Springfield Ladder Anchor safely secures an extension ladder to the roof of a building in order to keep the ladder from slipping sideways along the roofline or slipping out from the wall at the ground level. The product was invented through collaboration between Springfield, Inc., our related commercial roofing enterprise and Great Lakes Stainless (GLS), one of the country’s top stainless steel manufacturers. The Springfield Ladder Anchor is the result of decades of experience in the field, safely and effectively climbing ladders to reach rooftops of every imaginable dimension and grade.

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) has a mission to help employers and employees reduce job related injuries, illnesses and death. As such, they provide safety standards and guidelines for multiple industries. The Springfield Ladder Anchor fully complies with the safety requirements for properly securing an extension ladder set forth by OSHA.

Below is a brochure of the LadderAnchor™

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traverse city business news

Springfield Inc. Makes The Business News

Thank you Ross Boissoneau and TC Business News for capturing the essence of what we do!

View the article on the TCBN website as well: http://www.tcbusinessnews.com/roofing-company-keeps-on-top-of-safety-innovation/

Roofing Company Keeps On Top Of Safety, Innovation

Springfield ladder anchor

Most roofing companies do fine work, but they just put on roofs. They don’t concentrate on insulation or have a safety division that works with clients to provide them with dependable and reliable access to roof areas. And they probably don’t receive patents for their solutions in either area.

Of course, most companies don’t have a CEO who lives off the grid, either.

Springfield in Kingsley focuses on innovative solutions for its clients, whether that means simply roofing or providing insulation that keeps refrigerant tubes from icing up or leaking.

“We do a lot of work for food and fruit companies,” explained CEO Terry Umlor. That included trying to find ways to prevent ice buildups in freezers, or refrigerant lines filled with ammonia from being contaminated by water from leaks.

“We weren’t trying to create a widget (to) patent, but to solve a problem,” he said. “We struggled to find anything (that would work).”  cropped ladder bracket

But a search for a solution proved, well, fruitless. So they created their own. It took two years of research and development for the company to develop a product that would prevent contamination and protect against ammonia vaporization inside the pipes and the subsequent degradation of the insulation. It began using the process in 2008, and in 2012 was granted a patent for it, which it dubbed SmartShield™ technology. Not only do company clients see a return on their investment due to savings on energy and maintenance costs, they no longer face the specter of replacing the insulation every few years.

That’s not the only area where the company stands apart. It recently received a second patent, this time for its SmartAnchor™ Fall Prevention System. The product safely secures an extension ladder to the roof of a building in order to keep it from slipping sideways along the roofline or slipping out from the wall at the ground level.

“The old way of working was to run and hide from OSHA (the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration),” said Nick Jacqmain, company president. “Terry made the decision to embrace safety, make it an everyday thing. It’s the right thing to do.”
Springfield workers work on roofs of all shapes, sizes, and pitches. “We’re confronted with many different issues,” said Umlor. “We want to ensure a safe work environment.”

Since the issue of worker safety can keep people up at night, it seems only right that that’s when the solution came to Umlor. “I woke up in the middle of the night and came up with the idea,” he said. The next day he presented it to the rest of his staff for discussion and modifications, and within a week they were using it.

That was two years ago. Six months after the initial design they began the patent application, and received the patent earlier this year.

The company also touts its use of rooftop natural daylight fixtures. The so-called “skylights on steroids” are tube fixtures which concentrate and evenly distribute sunlight from the roof into the industrial workspace. The natural light can cut energy bills in half by eliminating the need for artificial lights.

The skylights are made in the U.S. by Orion Energy Systems and are used by beverage company MillerCoors in its distribution facility in Milwaukee, resulting in savings of $127,000 a year on electric lighting.

All in a day’s work for the company, which has clients across Michigan as well as some nearby states. Jacqmain said it stems from Springfield’s focus on the entire scope of a client’s needs. “Even before entering the fall protection business we were always looking at the building envelope,” he said.

And yearticle april Joshs, Umlor and his wife Terri Jo (company CFO and human resources director) do indeed live off the grid. Their home is a mile from the road, and the cost to get hooked up was steep. Umlor had always been interested in alternative energy, and today their home is powered
by solar cells and wind turbines. He estimated that the cost of purchasing and installing all the energy sources they currently have would run around $30,000-40,000 today, though he built it bit by bit over the years. “We have a TV, microwave, washer and dryer,” he said. “We have just become more conscious of using energy.”

That kind of innovative thinking has obviously served his company well.

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SPRINGFIED INC. – PATENT APPROVED

January 2016

 ladder anchorThe team of Springfield Inc. has reason to celebrate today.  The Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued Patent US 9,234,389 dated January 12, 2016 to Springfield C.E.O. Terry Umlor for his innovative Springfield Ladder Anchor product.  Springfield Inc. is well known for its longtime leadership in problem solving, and the SpringfieldLadder Anchor follows that trend with a product that safely secures an extension ladder to the roof of a building in order to keep the ladder from slipping sideways along the roofline or slipping out from the wall at the ground level.  Findings of the Bureau of Labor Statistics study of 1,400 ladder accidents indicate 53 percent of straight ladders had not been secured or braced at the bottom, and 61 percent had not been secured at the top.

The Springfield Ladder Anchor fully complies with the safety requirements for properly securing an extension ladder set forth by OSHA.  It is the result of decades of experience in the field, with our own employees safely and effectively climbing ladders to reach rooftops of every imaginable dimension and grade.  The Springfield LadderAnchor  can either be installed on the top edge of the roof or reversed and attached to the face edge of the roof. Since this product was designed by people in the roofing business, it will provide safe, attractive roof access for years to come.

Everyone at Springfield would like to say “Thank You!” to the following individuals and organizations for helping, leading, and guiding us through this process:  Terry Berden and his team at Great Lakes Stainless for consulting and manufacturing the finished product, Terry Boyd and the team at Gourdie Fraser for initial scope and design work and to Patent Attorney Doug Bishop for handling the legalities.  Most of all, thank you to our valued employees and clients for your wiliness to participate in bringing our idea into fruition.   “We were blessed throughout the process to be connected to so many intelligent and helpful individuals” noted Umlor.

For more information call us at (231) 263-5300 or find us on the www.springfieldroof.co

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Springfield ladder anchor safety

A New Paradigm for Ladder Safety

By:  Terri Jo Umlor, Vice President

Work place injuries and disabilities create an enormous emotional burden on families and a financial dependance on our economy. The ripple can be felt through many generations of families.

When a construction worker who is the head of the household is seriously injured or killed, there is a tremendous burden placed upon the entire community.  On average 400 people die each year and 135,000 people are injured as a result from scaffolding and ladder-related injuries.  Even if only 1% of those injured people become disabled that would equate to roughly 54 Million dollars of subsistence needed compounding each year to support the injured worker and their family.  The portable ladder is the most dangerous construction tool – 34% of all deaths on construction sites were from falls! 

It is generally assumed and accepted that construction workers and industrial employees have accidents, get hurt and die.  Why do we accept this?  We expend time, money and conversation making cookies for homeless people, and worrying over the plight of our local humane society, while mindlessly accepting that our next door neighbor, a construction worker, may become disabled or die the following day at work.   As an owner of a commercial roofing and fall prevention company, I challenge business owners everywhere to honor yours tradespeople – embrace ladder safety – give it a “MAN HUG”.  The Springfield patent pending LadderAnchor is a lifesaving tool that is easy to install and inexpensive to buy.

Construction workers are at the heart of the American dream – getting up every day, going to the jobsite, working long hard hours, providing for their families.  Where would our industrial nation be without them?  It’s time for construction company owners everywhere to get involved and help change the mindset about safe roof access.  Let’s honor our tradesmen and women. When a construction worker is viewed as someone worthy of all efforts to keep safe – we will have made our goal

When we have made our goal with our patent pending LadderAnchor — the 400 people that statistically die each year in fall related accidents will be returning home after work to their families; 135,000 fall related accidents per year will have been prevented; the workers that would have been seriously affected by death or injuries will be able to continue to support their families; the economy will not burdened with the estimated 54Million dollars of subsistence compounding each year to support injured/disabled workers and OSHA will no longer site falls from ladders as a leading cause of injury & death in construction.

 

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