Design Considerations for Robot Safety

Robot safety, must be the prime concern, when designing a robotic work cell.

It must be impossible for the robot to come into contact with a human at any time, yet obviously, there are circumstances, when this must safely occur.

The perimeter of the machine, (outside of the robot work envelope), can be shielded, with a fence. If the cell is a weld cell, then arc or light protection must be incorporated into the design.

It may be required, for the operator to load and unload, the work cell. If so, then provision has to be made, in the form of an electrically, interlocked door, or a light curtain.

Another consideration, is, if an end effector fails, can the robot payload be thrown out of the cell? If this is a possibility, then a substantial door, must be considered.

Safety mats can be considered, but we have not had a lot of success with them. The laser scanner, however, has been used, and found to be good.

The scanner emits a light pulse and is able to detect foreign objects, within the cell, thus shutting down the robot.

A major advantage, with both the light curtain and the laser scanner, is that both units are self diagnostic, thus if an internal failure, is detected, then the robot is shut down.

With conventional door switches, this is not so easy to detect.

For information on Light Curtains, as used for robot safety, click here
 

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Please note that the above listed companies are by no means the only manufacturers, nor the only ones we have used, over the years, but they do make an excellent product, THAT IN THE CORRECT APPLICATION, should give years of trouble free service.

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To find out more about how your company can work with Robot Safety in mind, please feel free to contact us..

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