'Wire-less' safety monitoring: it's all neatness and light
Banner Engineering has introduced Pico-Guard, a fibre optic safety system
that directly replaces mechanical safety interlock switches. This
combination of reliable, non-contacting photoelectric and fibre optic
technologies provides a low-cost alternative to cumbersome and costly
methods of machine safeguarding. Versatile and easy to install, the unit
comprises a controller and various plug-in, snap-lock optical safety
interlock switches and plastic fibre optic cable. No electrical wiring is
needed between Pico-Guard and the machine safety devices - a useful
feature when safeguarding a hazardous area, for example.
There are four separate optical channels, each of which can control
multiple optical safety interlock switches in the same optical network.
Additional optical safety interlock switches can be added to any channel,
simply by inserting them into the fibre optic loop for that channel. If
desired, each channel can control a separate zone of a machine such as
doors, entry gates, guards, and so on. A break in the optical circuit,
indicating personnel movement within the protected area, will trigger an
emergency stop.
Pico-Guard meets ISO 13849-1 (EN954-1) Category 4 requirements. Indeed, a
single switch point per door will meet Safety Category 4 applications,
which Banner believes is an industry first.