Category: Hierarchy of Controls

Hazard Warnings

Do-It-Yourself Safety Labels, Signs and Tags

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Safety label on a roller conveyor
This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Hier­archy of Con­trols

One of the great chal­lenges that all product design­ers face is the sourcing of appro­pri­ate product safety labels. There are many sources for off-the-shelf labels includ­ing some of the biggest names in mark­ing and labelling, but until now, none have offered a way for product man­u­fac­tur­ers to devel­op stand­ards-com­pli­ant haz­ard warn­ing signs and labels them­selves. If […]

Complementary Protective Measures

Emergency Stop Pull-Cords

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This entry is part 15 of 14 in the series Emer­gency Stop

When it comes to emer­gency stop devices there is no doubt that the red mush­­room-head push but­ton is the most com­mon – they seem to be every­where. The second most com­mon emer­gency stop device is the pull-cord, and like the light-cur­­tain in safe­guard­ing devices, the pull-cord is prob­ably the most mis­ap­plied emer­gency stop device. Loc­al […]

Control Functions

Trapped Key Interlocking

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This is a trapped key interlock on the door of an electrical switchgear cabinet. To open the door the key must be inserted and turned to withdraw a bolt that holds the door closed. With the bolt withdrawn, the key is held in the lock. The upstream switching device is held open by another interlock using the same key; since the key can only be in one of the two locks, it prevents accidentally closing the upstream switch while the cabinet is open for maintenance. The interlock is attached to the door with one-way screws to discourage casual removal of the lock, which would defeat the system.
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Guards and Guard­ing

Many machine design­ers think of inter­locks as exclus­ively elec­tric­al devices; a switch is attached to a mov­able mech­an­ic­al guard, and the switch is con­nec­ted to the con­trol sys­tem. Trapped Key Inter­lock­ing is a way to inter­lock guards that is equally effect­ive, and often more appro­pri­ate in severe envir­on­ment­al con­di­tions. Copy­right secured by Digi­prove © 2018Acknow­ledge­ments: As cited.Some Rights ReservedOri­gin­al con­tent here is pub­lished under […]