Paula Rosa, one of the UK's largest manufacturers of kitchen furniture, has installed Fortress Interlocks' eGard as part of a new guarding and interlocking system. Fortress supplied eighteen access systems to the company's manufacturing plant in Storrington, West Sussex.
The systems consist of solenoid controlled gate switches with safety keys from Fortress' amGard range and control stacks configured from the eGard range. The systems were put in place to guard wood panel cutting and palletising conveyors.
The amGard gate switches provide heavy duty access control and the eGard stacks incorporate start and stop modules and an emergency stop. These were mounted at each access point to allow quick and easy access without visiting the main control panel. When access is desired the stop button on eGard is pressed.
Once the run down cycle has completed the solenoid in the gate switch is energised and it is possible to remove the safety key and open the guard. To restart, all doors must be locked and all safety keys returned and in the locked position.
The green start push button on eGard must then be pressed twice, once to reset and once to restart the cell. Installation of eGard was a simple case of drilling holes 50mm apart in a vertical line and plugging in a cable.
No wiring was required directly to the push button or emergency stop's contacts. eGard simply clips together and its internal network self-configures all connections to its quick disconnect connector. Connecting the electrics therefore merely requires attaching the quick disconnect cable.