Avon appoints FORST for France
Above: Gilbert Perrichon and Serge Biscaro of FORST (centre left and right) receive their Avon service centre accreditation from Peter Rivers Avon’s Service & Training Centre Manager (left) and Mike Lee, Avon Service Engineer (right).
So far Avon has established nine servicing and training centres as part of a worldwide after-sales programme for its range of CBRN masks and SCBA’s. This is to support a rapidly expanding market base that now extends into the military, law enforcement, first responder, and firefighting and correction agency markets. Avon service centres have now been established in the UK, Austria, Australia, Denmark, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore with a further nine planned to rollout over the next two years.
Avon have also appointed two managers to oversee and develop Avon’s training and servicing programme – Charles Johnson, Senior Technical Training Manager for the Americas and Peter Rivers as Service and Training Centre Manager for Avon’s EMEA market.
Each service centre is accredited to offer Avon’s entire portfolio of personnel training and equipment servicing programmes including instruction on the correct use and maintenance of masks and SCBA, thereby improving equipment life and performance. The training also includes proper sizing and fitting, instructions on operational use, complete service and maintenance including routine checks, cleaning and storage.
Above: Serge Biscaro (left) and Gilbert Perrichon (right) receive mask servicing instruction from Mike Lee, Avon’s Service Engineer (centre left) and Peter Rivers, Avon’s Training Manager.
John Penton, Avon’s Market Development manager and who heads up the training programme roll-out said: “Here at Avon, we believe that if a mask and SCBA is to fully protect its wearer every time it is put on, full training must be completed on how to wear it properly and, equally important, how to maintain it. By doing this, we are able to increase and improve the capability of our systems, enhancing their life and protection performance as well as bringing down the lifetime cost.”
Avon’s training programmes operate globally at two levels. The first is an operative training course, for up to 10 students, which is tailored for initial product fielding and use. This focuses on the end-user perspective and includes exercises on fast and efficient donning, cleaning, maintenance and storage; all vital aspects of safety and protection and to prolong mask lifetime efficiency.
The second tier of the training programme provides for whole life maintenance and servicing with a focus on equipment requirements, servicing schedules, maintenance tooling, and test equipment.
