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When an investigation discovered that a large UK food manufacturer failed to install a  safety guard that could have prevented an engineer from major injury when he was trapped while conducting a conveyor belt inspection, the company was hit with a massive fine. This lesson serves as a reminder that every food and beverage processor must plan and implement appropriate safety procedures. As safety requirements evolve, older equipment may require additional safety measures to com …

Collaborative robots are promoted as not requiring safety guarding and able to work right alongside human employees. This does not necessarily mean they are inherently safe once deployed with any attachments, such as sharp end-effectors or welding tools. The engineering team must consider the application and the environment when creating and implementing a collaborative robot system.Two of the most critical safety standards relating to collaborative robot cells are the ISO/TS 15066 and RIA TR 15 …

Cobots from Universal Robots give companies access to all the benefits of advanced robotic automation, with none of the extra costs associated with traditional robot programming, set-up, and dedicated, shielded work cells. This makes robotic automation affordable for SMEs, small-batch production runs, and other setups where it would otherwise be too expensive. Easy ProgrammingPatented technology lets operators with no programming experience quickly set up and operate our cobots with in …

Functional safety (FS) impact assessments are vital to determine the potential risk any operational change may have on a safety related system. However, pressures stemming from lean management and budget constraints may result in some solutions not being adequately tested, which can compromise overall operational safety.It is often said that change is good, finding new ways to deliver improvements through thinking and doing things differently.In the industrial world, most companies have a strict …

The ABB Jokab Safety™ Pluto™ programmable safety controller features an advanced design that enables hot swapping for replacement with just the removal of the old terminal caps and a push of a button.In addition to being able to hot swap an old Pluto unit for a new one with little more than the removal and replacement of terminal caps, the replacement Pluto can reload the program within seconds with the push of a button. These features are available in network, stand-alone, AS-i and analog versi …