I recently heard about an application question related to a light curtain where a small gap existed at the top of the sensing field, between the last beam in the field and the…
Read MoreInterlocking Devices: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Note: A shorter version of this article was published in the May-2012 edition of Manufacturing Automation Magazine. When designing safeguarding systems for machines, one of the basic building blocks is the…
Read MoreHockey Teams and Risk Reduction or What Makes Roberto Luongo = PPE

Special Co-Author, Tom Doyle Last week we saw the Boston Bruins earn the Stanley Cup. I was rooting for the green, blue and white, and the ruin of my voice on…
Read MoreRetained fastenings for fixed guards
If you are building machinery that will be CE marked or is subject to the EU Machinery Directive, you need to read this article at MachineBuilding.net This article reviews some…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Hierarchy of Controls

(Eds. note: This article was originally written in 2011 and was updated in Nov. 2018.) The “Hierarchy of Controls” is one approach to risk reduction that has become entrenched in the…
Read MoreGuarding Emergency Stop Devices

Can emergency stop devices that a prone to unintended operation be guarded? Find out!
Read MoreInterlocked gate testing
Did you know that interlocked gates require stopping performance testing?
Machinery needs to be able to stop in the time it takes a person to open the guard and reach the hazard. If the distance from the guard opening to the hazard is short enough that a person can reach the danger point before the hazard can be controlled, the guard is useless. The resulting situation may be worse
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