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SERVICE

Machinery Safety

Safety creates trust. As a powerful and reliable partner in matters of automation technology, we have made it our task to accompany you competently and reliably during your system’s entire life cycle- and to also ask, answer, and professionally resolve all queries relevant to safety in the process.

  • Practical examples
  • What may we do for you?
  • Safety engineering FAQ

    •   Practical examples


      What may we do for you


    1. DIRECTIVES AND STANDARDS RESEARCH
    We support you during the risk assessment as well as with questions about various directives and about Performance Level.


    2. DEFINITION OF THE
    SAFETY CHAIN
    We help you to find the appropriate safety functions corresponding to the hazard and to implement them under ISO 113849 and the current safety regulations.


    3. SAFETY-RELEVANT
    INDICATORS
    We gladly provide all of the necessary parameters for SMC COMPONENTS: Furthermore, SMC offers expert support when calculating the safety function pursuant to ISO 13849-1.


    4. TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
    We support you comprehensively in the drafting of circuit schematics and concepts- from the simple circuit to complete installation-ready CE-conformant solutions.


    5. VALIDATION
    We gladly support you during the testing and analysis according to ISO 13849-2.


    6. TRAINING COURSES
    SMC offers targeted, customized training courses and advanced education on the subject of safe controll with emphasis on pneumatics and electrical equipment.




    Safety engineering FAQ

    1. Is an operating function or a safety function involved?
    It concerns a safety function if a function’s failure or faulty behavior can lead to a possible injury. In pneumatics operation functions often fulfill the safety aspects – for instance in valves with intermediate position. Which is why the components used require a long service life.

    2. Should pneumatic components be subjected to safety-related consideration?
    Yes, because pneumatic actuators such as cylinders can also lead to serious injuries, they must also be assessed acc. ISO 12100 and if necessary safeguarded through constructive measures. pneumatics or electro-pneumatic-controllers are to be assessed and implemented acc. ISO 13849-1 and 2.
    3. What is implied by "Protection against unexpected start-up"? Must I deal with this?
    In principle, protection against restart is to be considered with every safety function. This is regarded as one of the basic safety principles of ISO 13849-2. In pneumatics protection against restart means the following: after an energy failure (compressed air supply, compressor breaks down, or hose rupture) and subsequent recovery, the machine must not start up automatically without a separate start command. The detection of a primary-side pressure drop, which must lead to a system interlock, is often sufficient.
    4. May bistable valves be installed in safety functions?
    In the 'ISO 13849-2' list of proven safety principles, there is the point 'secured position', which safety-oriented products and systems must fulfill. This term means, that the moving element of a component (the spool valve) is held mechanically in one of the possible positions. Friction alone is not sufficient. However a bistable valve is only held in one position by friction and therefore does not fulfill this proven principle. These principles are to be fulfilled from Performance Level "b" upward.

    According to a statement from the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA), bistable valves are permitted if they feature a detent (mechanical lock) at the end positions. Steel-slider valves from SMC have such a lock and therefore can be used in safety-related control systems. For this the ISO 13849-2's fundamental, proven safety principles must be observed, in particular the following: application of the principle of energy separation (closed-circuit principle).

    The safe state is achieved by releasing energy. This means that the most recent switching position before the release must be the safe state. Moreover it must be checked in the specific case of application, whether energy failure and recovery can lead to unexpected and/or additional hazardous movements.
    5. Does a valve in which both the supply voltage and the pilot air can be interrupted separately represent a two-channel solution?
    A two-channel solution must be at least "one fault safe", meaning that one single fault in the safety chain (e.g. a valve not switching) must not lead to the loss of the safety function. That is not the case with the pilot-controlled valve because a fault in the main valve's spool (e.g. a chip that blocks the spool valve) leads to the failure of the entire system. Only a fault exclusion according to ISO 13849-2 for failures on the main valve can confirm this system as suitable. However fault exclusions should be used with caution.
    6. Is there a correlation between SIL (Safety Integrity Level) and PL (Performance Level)?
    Yes. Both systems are linked by the probability of failure and can be converted accordingly. SIL can generally only be calculated for complete systems. An individual product cannot have a SIL.
    7. Which principles are to be observed when designing (pneumatically driven) isolating guards?
    EN 953 for isolating guards is to be fulfilled.
    Quote from standard 953:2009, point 5.2.5.2:
    "Force-actuated moveable guards must not cause any injuries (e.g. due to closing pressure, force, speed, sharp edges). If an isolating guard is fitted with a non-isolating protective device which automatically causes the isolating guard to re-open as soon as a person or object comes into contact with the isolating guard, the force for preventing closure of the isolating guard must not be more than 150 N. The kinetic energy of the isolating guard must not be more than 10 J. If no such protective device is attached, these values must be reduced to 75 N and 4 J respectively."
    8. Can I implement my safety function using serial transmission?
    If you do not install a secure bus device (master, valve cluster, etc.), a maximum Performance Level, PL, of "b" is achievable. If a higher PL is required, it is possible to use a standard bus protocol (Profibus, CAN, EtherCAT, and many others) as long as the safety function is excluded from it. An example of this is a standard-bus valve cluster in which a 5/3-way valve assumes a safety function. Here the valve or a group of valves is de-energized via hard wiring (relay). A higher PL is thus achievable.

    9. A safety PLC is very expensive. Can I also design my safety function purely pneumatically?
    In principle it is possible to say that safety functions that can be implemented electro-pneumatically can also be designed purely pneumatically. In this case the cost-effectiveness of purchasing one's own safety PLC depends on the complexity of the desired safety functions and the operating functions required for this.Special attention is on the sensors required by ISO 13849 to fulfill the degree of diagnostic coverage from category 2 upward. Realizing this purely pneumatically represents considerable extra expense in the conceptual design of the circuit, component quantity, and the costs resulting from that. The acquisition of a safety PLC compared with a purely pneumatic version of the safety function therefore often represents the more cost-effective solution.
    10. Where can I get the necessary safety-relevant key figures of the SMC components?
    SMC will gladly provide you via email with all of the safety-relevant key figures, such as B10 and MTTF. Furthermore SMC offers a Sistema library available online at www.smc.at/safety. Sistema is a program for calculating your safety functions. It is provided free of charge by the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA).
    11. What does a pneumatic maintenance backup (lockout/tag out) look like?
    Maintenance safeguards (lockout/tag out, LOTO) are technical facilities that lock control elements of a technical system, in other words switches, shut-off or ball valve, and so forth, in a particular position. They are used to protect against unauthorized access or unintentional activation, for instance during a maintenance procedure.
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