Series: Q&A

Ques­tions & Answers on a vari­ety of ques­tions posed by our read­ers and by attendees at our pub­lic sem­inars.

Control Functions

Q & A: Category 2 and Testing Intervals

Posted on
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 […]

Functional Safety

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

Posted on
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 […]