How do I find the right safety locking device?

Step 1: Accessible or non-accessible?

In step 1, a look at the respec­tive instal­la­tion sit­u­a­tion of the safe­guard on the plant or machine pro­vides an ini­tial, impor­tant indi­ca­tion of the right safety locking device. The deciding factor here is whether or not the safe­guard is acces­sible. That’s because acces­sible safe­guards require an escape release, for example.

Step 2: Process or personnel protection?

Step 2 is to assess whether the respec­tive plant or machine still presents a hazard, even after the stop com­mand. This relates to machines that still overrun; robot appli­ca­tions for example. In this case, the guard may not be unlocked until the machine is in a safe state and has com­pletely stopped. It must not be pos­sible to open the safety gate until the machine no longer poses a danger. Process guarding or safe guard locking may be required for per­sonnel pro­tec­tion; that depends on the stop­ping time. If the time it takes to reach the danger zone is greater than the stop­ping time, then process guarding is suf­fi­cient. In this case, the process itself should be pro­tected as a pri­ority, and unwanted dis­rup­tions to pro­duc­tion should be excluded. How­ever, if the danger zone can be reached before the stop­ping time is ended, then per­sonnel pro­tec­tion in accor­dance with EN ISO 13849–1 is required – accord­ingly, a safety locking device that guar­an­tees this must be selected. Because in this case, the safety of the oper­ator must be guar­an­teed.

Step 3: Which Performance Level is required?

Ulti­mately, selec­tion of the right safe­guard is made on the basis of the Per­for­mance Level (PL). This is deter­mined using a risk analysis in accor­dance with EN ISO 13849–1. The key fac­tors for this cal­cu­la­tion are the severity of the poten­tial injuries, fre­quency of expo­sure to the risk and ability to avoid the risks. PL e indi­cates the highest risk.

How do I find the right safety locking device? Find out!

With the deci­sion pathway, step by step, users find the right safety solu­tion for guard locking on safety gates.

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Which safety locking device in this case?

An example: on a pack­aging machine there is a small, built-in flap, through which the new pack­aging mate­rial is fed. The inter­ven­tion time is less than the machine’s stop­ping time. In accor­dance with EN ISO 13849–1, the machine requires Per­for­mance Level d. In this case, the new PSEN­m­lock mini would be ide­ally suit­able for this instal­la­tion sit­u­a­tion. As its name sug­gests, it has a com­pact design and is ideal for use in space-crit­ical instal­la­tion sit­u­a­tions. With its high holding force of 1 950 N (F_1max: 3 900 N), it also guar­an­tees safe guard locking for this appli­ca­tion.

Another example: on a machine, sausages are cut into appro­priate slices first, then por­tioned and finally packed in air-tight pack­aging. If there are any mal­func­tions, the oper­a­tors may reach into the machine area. How­ever, the inter­ven­tion time is greater than the stop­ping time. The danger from the machine cor­re­sponds to Per­for­mance Level e. The new safety locking device PSENslock 2 is suit­able for this sen­si­tive area, for example, as it has a hygienic design, is avail­able as a stain­less steel ver­sion and meets pro­tec­tion type IP67 / IP6K9K. PSENslock 2 guar­an­tees reli­able safe­guarding of the safety gate, pre­vents unwanted dis­rup­tions to pro­duc­tion and thus ensures high pro­duc­tivity.

The safe­guarding options are as wide-ranging as the safe­guards them­selves: “No machine is the same as the other; no hazard is the same as the one before”, explains Erich Wagner from Product Man­age­ment at Pilz. “We con­tin­u­ously develop our prod­ucts so that we can offer our cus­tomers the right solu­tion for their appli­ca­tion. As a result, we offer a com­pre­hen­sive port­folio of safety locking devices. As a partner, we also sup­port our cus­tomers when selecting the right con­trol unit, access con­trol and small con­troller, in order to con­figure the com­plete, optimum solu­tion.” On mod­ular sys­tems, safety locking devices can be com­bined per­fectly with the right analysis units, diag­nostic sys­tems, and con­trol units with access con­trol. So you can find the ideal, indi­vidual solu­tion for each appli­ca­tion. Experts from Pilz pro­vide advice every step of the way, in order to find the right solu­tion and imple­ment it for users accord­ingly.