Protecting operators from the safety hazards introduced by automated machines and robotic equipment demands an understanding of both the appropriate safety guarding level and the machine safety components needed to get the job done. As always, the designer must identify the safety risks, plan the best ways of addressing them, and ensure the proper application of safety components.
Many safety standards and specifications come into play for protecting personnel around automated equipment. Machine safety requires comprehension of and adherence to all local, national and/or international safety codes to provide the proper safeguards. While that’s beyond the scope of this white paper, a brief introduction of safety standards for guarding is worth consideration.
In this white paper you will learn about:
- Key Specifications
- Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction
- Safety Guarding
- Safety Component Basics
- Safety Switch Overview and More!
ISO 13850 specifies “Safety of machinery—Emergency stop function—Principles for design,” a standard (Type-B standards) which describes the safety requirements for designing the emergency stop equipment. ISO 13850 was revised in October 2015, and the revision has a major impact on the design of emergency stop equipment. This guidebook explains the matters that have a significant impact, and shows the guide for designing the equipment.
An important consideration when installing Safety Light Curtains and other safety guards is their proper placement. Check out our technical article Calculating Safety Distances, which explores the often overlooked practice of determining the minimum safe distance or height at which a hard guard or protective device should be installed.
The amount of electronic content in passenger cars continues to grow rapidly, driven mainly by the integration of various advanced safety features, which will increase further with the move towards fully autonomous vehicles. It is critical that these safety-related devices adhere to the highest possible quality and reliability requirements formalized in the ISO 26262 standard that is being rapidly adopted by automotive manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. This paper describes the advanced test capabilities for testing digital and analog portions of ICs for use in automotive applications.
It is easy to say that “Safety is everyone’s goal”, but what is really meant by that? Sound workplace safety practices can reduce the risk of injury to not only machine operators but to other people such as maintenance technicians. Sound workplace safety practices can also reduce the risk of accidental damage to machinery and other company assets, or harm to the environment. Common industry standards acknowledge that there is no such thing as zero risk, but nonetheless provide guidance to machine builders and operators regarding how to minimize risks. This is commonly referred to as machine safeguarding. Here’s a look at some key factors.
