Did you know that interlocked gates require stopping performance testing?
Machinery needs to be able to stop in the time it takes a person to open the guard and reach the hazard. If the distance from the guard opening to the hazard is short enough that a person can reach the danger point before the hazard can be controlled, the guard is useless. The resulting situation may be worse than not having a guard because it’s presence leads to a false sense of security in users.
Test the stopping time of guarded hazards and make sure that guards are far enough away from the danger zone to be effective. For more on stopping performance requirements, see CSA Z434, EN 999 (soon to be replaced by EN 13855:2010), and in the USA, 29 CFR 1910.217(h)(9)(v).
Download ISO Standards
Download IEC standards, International Electrotechnical Commission standards.
Download BSI Standards (British Standards Institution)
Download ANSI standards
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+DougNix is Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Compliance InSight Consulting, Inc. (http://www.complianceinsight.ca) in Kitchener, Ontario, and is Lead Author and Managing Editor of the Machinery Safety 101 blog.
Doug’s work includes teaching machinery risk assessment techniques privately and through Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Kitchener, Ontario, as well as providing technical services and training programs to clients related to risk assessment, industrial machinery safety, safety-related control system integration and reliability, laser safety and regulatory conformity.
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