The Safety Light Curtain

The Safety Light Curtain is an Excellent Option for Safety when Automating Your Process

Photo shows an Omron Light Curtain

The purpose of the light curtain, is to ensure the machine, or any of it's elements, will not operate, when a presence is detected.

It consists of 2 parts, the sender and receiver, and basically is a row of photocells, arranged to give a continuous "curtain" of protection. Whenever the curtain is blocked - usually when the operator is loading or unloading parts-the machine will not operate.

The units can be mounted, to the aluminum extrusion guarding. (See Factory Automation Safety)

A vital consideration, is the horizontal distance, the curtain is mounted, from any potential harm. We are concerned with machine reaction time-in other words-will all motion cease, in the time it takes, for an operator to break the curtain and reach the potential hazard?

It must be realized, that all safety components, must be completely "fail safe"-if the component itself has failed, then the all potentially harmful motion, must be total disabled.

For manufacturers of light curtains, try these links:

Omron

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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 safety light curtains into it's safety plan, please feel free to contact us..

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