If you’ve been reading this blog for very long. you’ll know that I frequently write a series of posts on a topic, like this one on how to do an ISO 13849-1 analysis. A few months ago, the software I have been using for many years to organize those series posts stopped working properly and…
Read MoreAre You Ready? WEEE Directive Full Implementation Starts 15-Aug-18
Many manufacturers selling industrial products into the EU market have come to understand at least one of the environmental protection Directives, RoHS – the “Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances.” In this post, I’m going to be looking at another environmental directive: WEEE – the “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” Directive (2012/19/EU). As of 14 August…
Read MoreNew Directions in Plastics Machinery, ISO/TC 270
Update to this article, September 2020. ISO 20430 was published in April 2020. ISO/TC 270 is now developing ISO 23582-1, Plastics and rubber machines — Clamping systems — Part 1: Safety requirements for magnetic clamping systems. Public review of ISO 23582-1 will start in the coming weeks, so if you are interested in this area,…
Read MoreTesting Emergency Stop Systems
Updated 2020-10-31. DN I’ve had a number of questions from readers regarding testing of emergency stop systems, and particularly with the frequency of testing. I addressed the types of tests that might be needed in another article covering Checking Emergency Stop Systems. This article will focus on the frequency of testing rather than the types…
Read MoreInconsistencies in ISO 13849-1:2006
I’ve written quite a bit recently on circuit architectures under ISO 13849-1, and one of my readers noticed an inconsistency between the standard text and Figure 5. This diagram shows how the categories can span one or more Performance Levels. If you look at Category 2 in Figure 5, you will notice that there are…
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