Category: Hierarchy of Controls

Complementary Protective Measures

Can Emergency Stop be used as an “on/off” control?

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Emergency Stop Button
This entry is part 16 of 16 in the series Emer­gency Stop

Every couple of months I get an email ask­ing me if there is any reas­on why e-stop func­tions can’t be used as the primary power con­trol (on/off but­ton) for machinery. Fol­low­ing a recent exchange, I thought I would share the reas­ons for why this is such a bad idea. The short answer The short answer is an unequi­voc­al NO. Don’t […]

Complementary Protective Measures

Introduction to Functional Safety Seminars

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Man training a group of people, pointing to Functional Safety topics on the whiteboard

If you are inter­ested in func­tion­al safety, and I know many read­ers are based on the stat­ist­ics I see for my oth­er func­tion­al safety-related posts, I think you will be inter­ested in this. I am col­lab­or­at­ing with the IEEE Product Safety Engin­eer­ing Society’s Vir­tu­al Chapter to provide a series of three 35 minute sem­inars dis­cuss­ing the fun­da­ment­als of func­tion­al safety. The […]

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 […]