Using laser scanners to safeguard your workforce
Most industrial automation facilities are hazardous
such as sound an alarm, slow the machine, or shut down the equipment.
Written by: Bill Giovino
workplaces. There are areas of the floor where automated or semi-automated equipment is operational, and often—while the equipment is in use—such areas are extremely hazardous for humans to enter. Hazardous areas can include equipment such as high voltage generators, industrial welding machines, heavy-duty pick and place machines, robots, and other exposed machinery where an unauthorized access can result in serious human injury. Often these areas also require quick and easy access during times the machinery is not operational, making fences and gates cumbersome or impractical. Colored reflective strips on the floor can be used to indicate a hazardous area, but a more effective means would be an active detection system for the floor that could take action if a human enters the hazardous zone. This article explains how safety laser scanners can be used to monitor dangerous industrial work areas by scanning the target area with laser beams. It examines the advantages of safety laser scanners in busy industrial facilities while keeping human operators safe when approaching hazardous equipment. It then shows how industrial laser scanners from Banner Engineering and IDEC can easily monitor an area of the floor to detect human operators and take safety actions
Contributed By DigiKey's North American Editors
Keeping hazardous work areas safe Industrial facilities can have high voltage equipment capable of inflicting serious damage on operators. While the equipment can be kept isolated or enclosed in cages, the human technicians tasked with operating the equipment must be protected. Manufacturing facilities can also have industrial robotic equipment that can easily knock an operator off their feet without warning. If the robot is on an automated assembly line it can usually be fenced off, but if it is an operator-attended workstation for handling and processing materials, it might need to be easily accessible to anyone on a busy factory floor. Pick and place machinery is also usually accessible but safe from passers- by; still, it must be kept safe from curious visitors that might want to stick their hands and arms where they don’t belong.
With these types of industrial equipment on the floor it’s important when planning an
industrial facility to ensure human operators are kept safe. Rather than making these safety decisions when the equipment floor plan has already been laid out, it’s best to make safety preparations during the initial stages of planning the
we get technical
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