Category: Safety

Proper Machine Safeguards Prevent Injury & Save Money 

Aluminum steel framing structure by 80/20 Inc.

Industrial presses, cutting and power tools and machines with rotating or fast-moving parts are accidents waiting to happen, yet a lack of proper machine guarding is one of the most cited Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations each year. Safety precautions may be one of the best investments for an industrial facility, as they […]

Understanding the Safety Functions of Collaborative Robots

2F-140 Adaptive Gripper on TM Collaborative Robot

As the use of collaborative robots continues to expand in industrial workplaces, humans are more frequently sharing space with cobots, as they’ve come to be nicknamed. While collaborative robots are considered “inherently safe” by design, there are understandably concerns regarding the safety of human operators working in close proximity to swift-moving industrial equipment. However, advances […]

The Basics of Enhancing Safety with Electrical Control Panels

Electricity is a major safety hazard in the workplace, according to the U.S. Office of Compliance, which states that 400 employees were unable to work for 31 days or more due to electricity exposure injuries, 1,970 occupational injuries resulted from exposure to electricity and 154 fatalities occurred due to exposure to electricity in the workplace […]

Machine Vision: Why Your Industrial Robot Needs Eyes

Industrial robots safely and efficiently perform tasks that are either too repetitive, difficult or hazardous for human workers and do so in a way that enhances production by eliminating bottlenecks and increasing product quality, but without “eyes” to see what they’re doing, robotic applications can be limited. Since a robot can only perform a task […]

Integrated Safety Devices Prevent Workplace Hazards

Machine hazards are a reality for workers in industrial settings. The most challenging areas include those where potentially hazardous operations occur, such as around fast-moving machinery and robots and sources of power. In these locations injuries typically take place at points of operation and machine motion, as well as areas of power transmission, so machine […]

How to Successfully Introduce a Cobot into the Workplace

Collaborative robots, also called cobots, are getting a lot of attention because they address labor shortages and enhance productivity in a more cost-effective way than traditional industrial robots due to a simpler set up (think more along the lines of plug-and-play than complex system integration) and their ability to work alongside humans, while freeing them […]

Pneumatic Safety Components and Where to Apply Them

With the introduction of automated systems, building machines has become even more complex. This forced designers to devote more time to implementing newer safety standards. A good example of this is the revision of ISO 13849 in 2006, which meant that all machine builders now had to consider safety-rated components as part of their design […]

Safety-Integrated Motion Control Allows Safety and Productivity to Co-Exist

Ultimately, the objective of any manufacturing operation is to produce product. Accordingly, corporate goals often focus on efficiency, quality and productivity. While some companies view safety as a necessary evil or, worse, a costly drain on productivity, top-tier manufacturers rank safety as a priority and embed it deeply into the culture of the company. Furthering […]

Are Collaborative Robots More Efficient than Workers?

The core motivation at the heart of technological advances is the desire to create tools that provide an improvement in our effectiveness as workers and, in turn, our business as a whole. As advances in technology continue, they broaden the boundaries and landscape of what was thought possible, and forces employers to be constantly reexamining […]

What Are the Signs Your Collaborative Robot Needs Repair?

Your collaborative robot, also known as a cobot, has been working hard to increase efficiency and reliability within production. This new technology has quickly paid for itself and has become indispensable for human coworkers working alongside the robot. Or perhaps you have used robotic technology for quite some time, and it has become a staple […]