Posted to News on 20th Oct 2009, 11:30
Euchner SafetyBook - review by MachineBuilding.net
Euchner's SafetyBook is written as an introduction to safety engineering - or, more specifically, machinery safety. Being a little bigger than A5 and running to almost 200 pages, it is more substantial than some of the other books on the same subject published by the company's competitors. Indeed, rather than just refer to principles, concepts and standards, this book also provide practical examples of the application of safety technologies. It is therefore very helpful, especially for those with little experience of machinery safety or who have not implemented a particular technology before.
At the start of the book is some history of machinery safety. The book then goes on to give a detailed description - illustrated by clear diagrams - of the construction of safety switches and relays. It also discusses safety circuits and safety fieldbuses, though this latter topic is restricted to AS-Interface Safety at Work (often referred to as ASIsafe or ASi-Safe).
Although not generally considered as machinery safety in the traditional sense, security is also covered in the book. Five pages are devoted to Euchner's EKS (Electronic Key System), which is presented as a secure and versatile alternative to conventional usernames and passwords in industrial environments.
Standards and regulations
The next section in the book looks at safety engineering in different global markets, namely Europe, the USA, Japan and worldwide. Given that the book was first published in May 2008, this section is now somewhat out of date. For example, it makes no mention of the new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. However, there are some helpful notes on the application of the EN 62061 and EN ISO 13849-1 machinery safety standards, as well as information relating to risk assessments.
Most of the second half of the book is devoted to application examples. These show how safety switches can be used in circuits monitored by safety relays to achieve different safety categories as described in EN 954-1.
At the back of the book are a useful glossary and a list of European type A, B and C standards, American OSHA, ANSI, RIA and NFPA standards, and Japanese JIS and TR standards. Such lists tend to become out of date almost as soon as they are published, and the list in this book is no exception (for example, it refers to EN 294, which has since been superseded and replaced by EN ISO 13857), and the list of European type C standards is not exhaustive.
While the list of standards is neither comprehensive nor up to date, and the application examples are based around Euchner products, the book still contains a wealth of useful information.
To request a copy, email [email protected] or telephone +44 (0)114 256 0123 (please mention MachineBuilding.net).
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