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Your partner for machine safetY


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For almost five decades, Euchner has helped machine builders and equipment users keep on top of machine safety, reduce accidents, improve uptime and save money


rom the ancient Egyptian’s building the pyramids, to the large textile mills and the development of transportation that sprang


up during the industrial revolution, to today’s complex technology-driven production lines, safety of people has evolved to provide ever more sophisticated and regulated protection. A few years prior to the very first issue of


Design Solutions, 50 years ago this month, a great leap forward in the technology surrounding machinery control systems took place. This included the introduction of a new computer technology known as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). At the start of the machine age, machinery


was significantly simpler than today. Most machine parts moved slowly and the processes undertaken by the machine were clear to the single operator - only the main spindle was powered, while the axes were actuated manually by the operator. The situation changed as machinery increased in size or complexity, it became possible to equip all the axes with separate energy sources, so inattentiveness during operation could be


dangerous for the operators and the machine could also incur very expensive damage. To reduce accidents in the workplace,


mandatory legislation was put in place and supporting standards were developed and published, helping designers build safer machinery and enabling equipment users to operate them more safely. A major leap for the European market came about in the early nineties when specific legislation for the design of safe machinery came into being in the form of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations for the UK, which provides a common legal framework for machinery designers to use, backed up with various standards. Safety engineering represents an important building block during the development of machinery and installations but is far-too-often an afterthought during the design process. Due to modern, high-speed, highly


automated work equipment, hazards to personnel and processes lurk in all machinery and installations, many not apparent at first glance. A further trend that has increased the importance of considered machinery safety


10 DESIGN SOLUTIONS JULY/AUGUST 2021


design is the way people interact with the equipment; gone are the days when it was adequate to simply shut down the entire machine when an operator required access. Motive power is often needed for setting up or optimising the equipment during regular production and this must be done safely.


the evolution of safetY components


The early safety systems used on machinery often relied on simply ‘breaking’ the power supply to the control circuit and gave little consideration to failures, manipulation and fault-detection. The automotive industry at the time wanted a better way of ensuring systems would perform when required and were very much involved in the basic design of the safety relay evaluation devices we have come to recognise over the past 30 years. At the same time, the development of the switching elements on the machinery was also making progress with redundancy in the output circuits taking advantage of the cross-monitoring ability provided by the safety-relays. Engineers suddenly had a much safer and more reliable way of


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