Planning a safety system upgrade can be tricky and can be detrimental to your plant’s productivity. Therefore, it is vital that a clear and concise procedure be followed, right from initial conversion to final validation.

 The plethora of communication protocols and exhaustive list of security configurations make IIoT implementations a cumbersome task. However, a major challenge that organizations face is finding the starting point for their IIoT implementations.

 Poor safety practices within the plant floor can lead to a variety of problems and hazards within the work space. By clearing up misunderstandings regarding machine safety, many accidents can be avoided. This article is a continuation of "Top 10 Machine Safety Myths Debunked: Part 1."

 Poor safety practices within the plant floor can lead to regulatory fines, workers’ compensations, lost productivity and of course, a hazardous work space. Some, if not all, accidents can be avoided by clearing up misunderstandings regarding machine safeguarding, ensuring all practices are compliant to regulatory protocols.

The Digital Enterprise architecture is disrupting conventional workflows, changing the ways in which manufacturers operate. Real-time insights, improved collaboration, and digitization of manual processes through technology are some of the emerging concepts entering the decades old workplace culture. 

Laser scanners serve as a safeguarding mechanism in places where normal devices such as emergency plungers and pushbuttons aren’t viable. The technology used within laser scanners is called “time-of-flight”, which involves the scanner calculating the position of the object based on the time taken by the laser to travel back.

For operators working in an automated environment, safety is dependent on two core factors. Firstly, the safety layers that a process has been embedded with, and secondly, the operator’s own knowledge regarding the workings of the process and how to manage it during abnormal states. Control systems have evolved greatly, incorporating multiple layers of automated safety within them that act as barriers to accident prevention at different scales. Nonetheless, the risk always remains and therefore efforts should be made to minimize its occurrence.

Productivity, efficiency and profits have all soared within the manufacturing industry thanks to the advent of machines and robotics. The benefits do make a strong case for the technologies’ advancements and complicated implementations; however, these systems aren’t free of hazards, especially for the workforce that operates on them.

As factory floors become increasingly complex and incorporate sophisticated modules, the need for fool-proof safety systems also becomes imperative. Organizations have much to lose from operation of unprotected equipment, with the list starting from workers’ lives and going all the way to hefty reinvestments. Safety-rated controls are therefore an important part of the manufacturing industry, but due to the increasingly complex requirements, System Engineers must take into account certain factors when selecting such equipment.

Ever been in one of those situations where you wished you just had a ‘pause’ button? Accidents on the plant floor can cause irreparable damage to equipment and personnel that can adversely affect your company’s productivity, profitability and safety.