Safety Switch prevents lock-ins for accessible systems.
Press Release Summary:
With safety guard locking, safety switch STF ensures people are not locked inside danger areas unintentionally. Product prevents access to danger area on machine as long as hazard is present and ensures safety guard remains locked until machine has come to standstill. Offering no risk of unintentional guard locking, switches have latch to ensure guard locking remains in its current position when machine is shut down or in case of power failure.
Original Press Release:
No Chance of Getting Locked in - New Switch Concept from EUCHNER
With the safety switch STF, EUCHNER is presenting a new concept for the protection of accessible systems. With the new safety guard locking, it is possible to prevent locking people inside a danger area unintentionally.
EUCHNER is a specialist for safety technology in machinery and systems engineering and has decades of experience in the development of safety switches with guard locking. These switches are intended to prevent access to the danger area on a machine as long as there is a hazard. As protection for movable safety guards, they ensure, for instance, that a safety guard remains locked until the machine has come to a standstill.
In the related standard for this guard locking, EN 1088, it is defined that guard locking devices must be of a design that is "actuated by spring force - unlocked using power". Using this closed-circuit current principle it is ensured the safety guard also remains locked in case of a power failure.
For cleaning and maintenance work it is necessary for people to enter the interior of machinery. If a conventional safety switch with mechanical guard locking is used, there is a risk, particularly in this situation, that people become locked in by the unintentional locking of the safety guard. Specifically, if the safety guard is closed unintentionally when electrically isolated, the spring force actuated guard locking locks the guard and the person is locked in.
As a result a new hazard is produced by the use of guard locking intended to protect people. For this reason EUCHNER has developed, together with the employer's liability insurance association, a new switch concept.
With the new safety switch STF there is no longer a risk of unintentional guard locking. These switches have a latch to ensure the guard locking remains in its current position when the machine is shut down or in the event of a power failure. This means the safety guard remains either always locked or always open when electrically isolated. In normal operation the guard locking operates as usual.
EUCHNER expects this concept will become established over the long term and may become a standard for safety switches with guard locking.
EUCHNER - More than Safety.
Further information on the company is available on the Internet at www.euchner-usa.com
EUCHNER -USA
6723 Lyons St.
East Syracuse, NY 13057
Tel: 315-701-0315
Fax: 315-701-0319
