800lb Safety Straps, Quake Trip Cabinet Latches and Earthquake Escape Lights Highlight This Year’s Products

“This year has been unlike any I can remember”, says Michael Essrig. He should know; Essrig is the CEO of ETC Building and Design, a long-time national leader in non-structural seismic mitigation: the bracing of building contents to keep them from being tossed about in an earthquake. “About the time of the Japan earthquake and Tsunami, all of these new earthquake preparedness products came out. It’s like we’ve entered a new age of earthquake readiness. These items create a lot more options for us when it comes to saving lives in an earthquake.”

The newcomers to the preparedness product lineup were all on display earlier this month at the California Hospital Association’s Disaster Preparedness Conference held in Sacramento. ETC was there with its Quake Cottage Earthquake Simulator, and the company introduced these new products along with its line of exclusive earthquake safety straps that are used in the retrofit of

hospitals.

First in the line-up of new items is a 4x5 adhesive based fastener from the Safe-T- Proof line of Earthquake Safety Straps. Already established as the state of the art because of its quality engineering, ease of use and approval for use on state mandated retrofit work, the Safe-T-Proof line’s newest addition has a holding power more than double the typical 2x3 thumb locking or Velcro type of fastener, bringing into play the adhesive based bracing of large pieces of equipment such as bio-freezers. Two fasteners now do the job of five or six, a real breakthrough in mitigation, Particularly for labs, life sciences companies, Universities and Hospitals.

Next, the Seismo-Latch earthquake fastener: an earthquake latch for kitchen cabinets. Considered the most dangerous room in the house in an earthquake, the kitchen can become like a war zone in a quake, with cabinets flying open and items launching, often at eye level, out across the room. Before the Seismo- Latch, cabinets were held closed with locking devices that were engaged continually, meaning that the user had to disengage or unlock the cabinet to open it up. The Seismo-Latch is a passive restraint, and only activates in an earthquake, and is the first of its kind.