As robots become common place in the modern manufacturing plant, operator safety is becoming more of a priority. Daniel Hall, Editor of Factory Equipment News spoke with ABB's business development manager Greg Sale.
Q. Why is robot safety becoming more important?
The robot has become more of a general commodity for a wider range of manufacturers. Not so long ago a general robot specialist had to be engaged to fix problems that occurred with automation equipment. Now, lesser skilled personnel will be expected to perform tasks with the machines as they experience problems. Almost everyone is being asked to become a robot generalist in modern manufacturing plants, and training mentality has to change to adapt to this trend.
Q. Why is safety training important
Companies have become more aware of their safety obligations, on a moral and legal level. The company has an obligation to provide a safe workplace, and they can not expect untrained workers to jump into the robot cell and fix a problem if there is something wrong with a machine.
If something happened to a worker performing maintenance, or jogging the robot, and the company had not provided that person with some degree of training, they would be at risk on a lot of levels. Robot training can be an important part of the employer’s obligation and duty to provide a safe workplace and plant.
Robots are safe while they are safely tucked away behind the fence, but when people do have to interact with the machines they must have a basic understanding of safety.
Q. What does the term ‘jogging’ mean?
Jogging is a colloquial term for moving the robot in a safe manner at a low speed.
If a robot picks up the wrong box while pelletising, and squashes the box, the robot would become tripped out on overload.
To ‘jog’ the robot, would mean personnel have to turn the robot to manual and safely drive the robot out of the incorrect position.
The person would then have to make the area safe, go into the cell, take the box out, rectify whatever the problem was, jog the robot into a safe position and restart the system.
Q. What are the keys risks involved in this process?
When the robot is being jogged the user is moving the robot manually using safety devices such as the pendant enabling device.
This allows the operator to manually move the robot around when they are inside the safety cell. There is a risk that the operator could hit themselves, someone else, or a piece of plant or equipment if they did not know what they were doing.
Basic robot safety systems are important, and users must recognise that the robot is moving and, therefore, they have to do certain things to minimise the risk.
The other part of the robot that must be considered is the live equipment in the system.
Users must be aware of the important of isolating this equipment. Users to do have to become a specialist robot programmer because this type of training is designed to make them aware of the basic robot function, the occupational health and safety risks, and how to minimise those risks.
Q. What injuries can occur to untrained operators?
Possible injuries include crushing and electrocution injuries.
The key components to ensure safety on and around the machinery include the machine guarding and electrical safety interlock systems.
When the robots are installed or modified, the system is installed in accordance with Australian Standards for Robotics and Machinery guarding.
It is important that operators have an introductory understanding of these systems and requirements.
Q. When does safety around a robot start?
Robotic safety must start with education and every company should have a safety plan to put into action.
Part of that safety plan would be education of the company’s personnel.
In general, the machinery will run fully automatic and people will only need to interact with it when something goes wrong.
Often the machinery will sit in a corner operating automatically, but training aims to make people aware that this thing that sits in a corner can be dangerous.
Robotic equipment almost becomes part of the furniture, and quite often the robots are not seen as dangerous.
Some smaller robots can sometimes even be seen as cute, but they can still take your finger off.
Education is about informing people about the dangers and making people realise that trained or aware people should be responsible for operating machinery.
Article courtesy of Daniel Hall, Factory Equipment News
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