EU European Union

Are You Ready? WEEE Directive Full Implementation Starts 15-Aug-18

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Processing of waste electrical and electronic materials

image: Advanced Recyc­ling Machines 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). […]

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 With the bolt withdrawn, the key is held in the lock.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 […]

Guards and Guarding

How to Apply a Safety Edge to a Machine Guard – Part 3: Stopping Performance

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CNC machine with sliding doors and safety edges
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Guards and Guard­ing

In Part 2 of this art­icle, I looked at the pres­sure-sens­it­ive devices (safety edges) them­selves. This part explores the stop­ping per­form­ance require­ments that engin­eers and tech­no­lo­gists need to con­sider when apply­ing these devices. Copy­right secured by Digi­prove © 2018Acknow­ledge­ments: As cited in the text.Some Rights ReservedOri­gin­al con­tent here is pub­lished under these license terms: X License Type:Non-com­mer­cial, Attri­bu­tion, Share AlikeLi­cense Sum­mary:You may copy this con­tent, […]

Courses

RA101 – Introduction to Risk Assessment

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Graphic illustration of a factory line

Learn Machinery Risk Assess­ment any­time and any­where.  Intro­duc­tion to Risk Assess­ment is our 12-week machinery risk assess­ment course, based on ISO 12100:2010 and ISO/TR 14121 – 2:2012 stand­ards. Delivered online, this course fea­tures widely accep­ted meth­od­o­logy that can be used without modi­fic­a­tion in Canada, the EU, and the USA. Copy­right secured by Digi­prove © 2018Some Rights ReservedOri­gin­al con­tent here is pub­lished under these license […]

Guards and Guarding

How to Apply a Safety Edge to a Machine Guard – Part 2: Design Considerations

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CNC machine with sliding doors and safety edges
This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Guards and Guard­ing

In Part 1 of this art­icle, I looked at the pres­sure-sens­it­ive devices (safety edges) them­selves. This part explores the design require­ments that engin­eers and tech­no­lo­gists need to con­sider when apply­ing these devices. Copy­right secured by Digi­prove © 2018Acknow­ledge­ments: As cited in the text.Some Rights ReservedOri­gin­al con­tent here is pub­lished under these license terms: X License Type:Non-com­mer­cial, Attri­bu­tion, Share AlikeLi­cense Sum­mary:You may copy this con­tent, cre­ate […]

Guards and Guarding

How to Apply a Safety Edge to a Machine Guard – Part 1: Pressure-sensitive devices

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CNC machine with sliding doors and safety edges
This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Guards and Guard­ing

Safety Edges are often for­got­ten as safe­guard­ing devices. Most machinery engin­eers and design­ers are famil­i­ar with inter­lock­ing devices and light cur­tains, but once we step away from the famil­i­ar, our under­stand­ing of how to apply safe­guard­ing devices like a safety edge becomes a bit foggy.  Copy­right secured by Digi­prove © 2018Acknow­ledge­ments: SafeInd, IEC, ISO, Rock­well Auto­ma­tio more…Some Rights ReservedOri­gin­al con­tent here is pub­lished […]

Control Functions

Q & A: Category 2 and Testing Intervals

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Logical block diagram for ISO 13849-1 Category 2 architecture.
This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Q&A

Dur­ing the Free Safety Talks that we did with Schmersal Canada and Frank­lin Empire, we had a “hot ques­tion” come up regard­ing Cat­egory 2 archi­tec­ture and the test­ing inter­val require­ment. In the short video below, Doug answers that ques­tion. If you have more ques­tions or felt some­thing was­n’t clear in the video, leave us a com­ment and […]

Events

Five reasons you should attend our Free Safety Talks

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Banner for the Free Safety Talks

Reas­on #1 – Free Safety Talks You can­’t argue with Free Stuff! Last week we partnered with Schmersal Canada and Frank­lin Empire to put on three days of Free Safety Talks. We had full houses in all three loc­a­tions, Wind­sor, Lon­don and Cam­bridge, with nearly 60 people par­ti­cip­at­ing. We had two great presenters who helped […]

Functional Safety

Q & A: Can Safety PLCs be used for Lockout?

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Disconnect Switch with Lock and Tag
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Q&A

The ques­tion of lock­out and the use of safety PLCs as a means to meet the lock­out require­ments comes up more and more fre­quently these days. Can Safety PLCs be used for lock­out? Safety pro­fes­sion­als don’t always agree on this con­tro­ver­sial top­ic! Dur­ing the Free Safety Talks that we did with Schmersal Canada and Frank­lin Empire, this […]

Events

Free Safety Talks – May 2018

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Free Machinery Safety Talks This May we are once again part­ner­ing with Schmersal Canada and Frank­lin Empire to provide free safety talks in South­ern Ontario.  If you are respons­ible for the safety of work­ers using machinery in Ontario, Canada, ensur­ing their safety is a key pri­or­ity for you every day. Under­stand­ing your respons­ib­il­it­ies is vital to […]