Which Standard Is the Key to Compliant Safety Controls?

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Understanding IEC 61508, the “parent” functional safety standard, will help you better apply U.S. and European industry-specific standards. Today’s global economy entails ever-changing regulatory and industry safety standards. Manufacturers may get confused when applying them to product design, market demands, and getting products to market in increasingly tight windows. This confusion can lead to uncertainty, which can slow the product to market process and foster risk... Read More

Critical Role of Documentation in Risk Assessments

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Proper documentation helps drive success in designing, verifying and validating machine safety. There are very few people who raise their hand when asked the question “who here likes documentation?” Documentation can be seen as an impediment to progress and efficiency, not to mention innovation. But in the long run, proper documentation goes along with proper and efficient planning. When it is looked at as a record of an effective plan, it isn’t too hard to see that documentation... Read More

Clip and Save this Must-have list of Key Safety Standards!

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A concise rundown on what you need to know for emergency stops, machine guarding, safety PLCs, motor drives and robotics. Understanding the differences of safety standards as it applies to different markets is a key element in developing a product development strategy for different installations and markets. Although in North America, many of the Functional Safety standards are derived from IEC or ISO standards, it’s important to understand how the requirements differ. This... Read More

Siemens vs. Allen-Bradley: A Third-Party Look at Current Safety Platforms

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Both platforms have changed a lot in the last year. A systems integrator compares the state of the art in both platforms, addressing ease of programming, troubleshooting, ability to share data, and use of libraries and modules. View this webinar, where the integrator creates a safety program in each platform, highlighting similarities and differences. When it comes to safety, the past year has seen plenty of activity. Regulators continue to demand improvements in safety, prompting... Read More

New Robotic Technology Aims to Prevent Dangerous Arc Flash Incidents

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Many arc flash incidents are related to racking circuit breakers, chiefly in the power industry. A new robotic device allows a worker to rack circuit breakers from a safe distance of over 75 feet away. An arc flash is an electrical explosion that results from a low impedance connection to ground or another voltage phase in an electrical system. In other words, an arc flash is an electrical breakdown of the resistance of air resulting in an electric arc. This can occur when there... Read More

OSHA Cracks Down on Machine Safety: End Users Beware!

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Over the past couple years, safety regulations in the U.S. have undergone a dramatic shift. National Consensus Standards, such as ANSI, are putting more emphasis on risk assessment for equipment manufacturers, equipment modifiers and in some cases, the end user. It is expected that future revisions of such standards will require more and more risk assessments be performed by end users. According to some current standards the end users may also be considered equipment modifiers. “This... Read More