E-stop master slave regulations 1

[sparky43]

We have a production line that has 3 e-stop zones, and in each zone we have 1 master and 1 slave. I have been asked to look at converting the 3 zones in to 1 zone. I want to keep this as simple as possible but obviously stay within the current regulations and standards. I want to make 2 of the current masters, slaves to the 1 remaining master. My question is am i ok to do this and is there a maximum number of e-stop master/slave levels you can have in an e-stop system.

Ie, Proposed circuit.

machine A is the master (1 level), machine B is a slave to machine A, but a master to machine C (2nd level), machine C is a slave to machine B (3rd level)


can you keep repeating the above an indefinite ammount of times??

if someone can point me in the right direction for the regulations i'd appreciate it.

regards
sparky

 

[davidbeach]

Nobody can have an answer at this point, you haven't even said where you are. What regulations apply?

 

[sparky43]

I'm in Ireland David.

 

[controlsdude]

go here for a link on estop
might get you in the right ballpark

you would have to just register to get the doc you need

http://www.sti.com/safety/index.htm

I thought sti was out of great britain so right around the corner for you.

As far as integrating estop zones together why would that be an issue? Would not that be more safe and less confusion than having zones of estop control?

I think the biggest concern is if one area had a catogory level of safety that was higher than the rest would tieing the lower catagory estop area invalidate this higher level area? Maybe this was davidbeach's concern?

 

[sparky43]

Thanks for the link.

that's exactly why we are doing it, because of the confusion for the operators.

all three current zones are using cat 3 hardware, all connected using the same e-stop phylosophy.

 

[zappedagain]

FWIW - In the USA I use ANSI RIA R15.06-1999 as my reference for robot safety.

http://www.used-robots.com/articles.php?tag=1906

You can buy it from the ANSI web store. There are some application/environment specific details, so you'll probably want to look through it yourself vs taking an answer off the web.

Z

 

[zappedagain]

So what is the safety standard for 'robots' in the EU, anyway?

Z

 

[IETMember]

Hello
You may or may not be aware that the Machine Safety Standards are being updated and come into force next year(Dec 09)with that in mind, it might be advisable to do the modifications to that new standard. please follow the link for more information, plus you can download an 80 page booklet from Guardmaster.

I hope the above is useful.

Regards

 

[zappedagain]

Thanks! That's a star for you!

Z