Traditionally, safety circuits were independent of the network. This was deemed the fastest, least complex and most reliable way to implement safe function. Isolated circuits working alongside the ...

The Machine Primary Control Elements (MPCE) 1 and 2 are typically a relay with force guided contacts. When a safety interlock, light curtain, or e-stop switch opens a circuit, the MPCE NO contacts ...

Disconnect switches play an important role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of industrial machinery. As key components in electrical systems, they provide a reliable means for safety isolating ...

Faced with ever-increasing cost pressures and demands for improved performance, machine builders are actively seeking new automation solutions with improved cost/performance ratios. In response to ...

Functional safety accounts for time — to build on existing safety structure (category) approaches. As we explored last month in this article series, accounting for time requires more work from safety ...

A single global machine safety standard has been in the works for a long time and will now be a little longer. The merger of safety standards ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 into one standard, IEC/ISO 17305, ...

Safety in the packaging industry used to be a relatively cut and dried affair, a matter of guarding, some e-stops, warning signs and perhaps a class or two. Simply put it all in place, maintain it, ...

Industry trade groups have weighed in — both pro and con — on whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should update its 30-year-old lockout/tag-out rules. The proposed change ...

Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin is in the Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems group, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, Massachusetts 02421, USA. Although computers ...