Safety solutions out to deliver maximum uptime

As manufacturing facilities continue to enter the age of Industry 4.0 and with fast-moving developments in technology, machinery uptime and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) are becoming significantly improved, resulting in greater profitability and a more efficient flow of production. But what about machinery safety and how can your safety devices help your machine become smarter?

Euchner, a leading specialist in machinery safety, has recognised the importance of this to its end users and is now offering its IO-Link Gateway for a number of its safety switches. Process data is cyclically sent to the control system via IO-Link, including all status signals, such as the position of the door or guard locking, indication of whether a switch is out of alignment. Moreover, non-cyclical services can be used to collect data, such as the switch temperature, the applied voltage and number of operating cycles.

Positive accounting

“With these advances, it is now very easy for a factory maintenance team to key into a machine’s maintenance programme and schedule maintenance and repair and from an external position, and for the machine manufacturer to remotely monitor the safety aspects of the machine, its guards and other safety elements,” states Euchner. “This results in positive accounting, rather than disaster management, optimising plant uptime and reducing unwanted costs.”

Euchner CTM

The interlocks feature high-level coding using transponder technology and an advanced diagnostic capability that, adds the company, “provides excellent resistance to misuse, especially where motivation for defeating the safety systems on the equipment is likely”. Moreovver, the compact dimensions of the CTM switch, which is just 120x36x25mm, makes this one of smallest locking devices of its type.

The locking ball actuator on an elastomer bearing allows some degree of flexibility, which enables the CTM to be used on smaller, lightweight doors with extremely small pivoting radii, right down to 150mm. This allows lower cost swing-type doors and flaps to be used where more complex sliding access solutions had to be used previously.

Powerful locking force

The bi-stable guard locking function, with a locking force in excess of 1000N, means that, in the event of a power failure or shutdown, the switch remains in its current state, the guard door is either locked or can be opened and closed, as required, making it much safer for applications where body access is essential, or where clean-down or maintenance procedures are ideally carried out without power being applied to the machine.