Safety scanners – one of the basic ways to ensure safety in the factory
They are used wherever constant access to the machine is necessary. Examples include an assembly station, from which a person periodically retrieves finished parts or a palletizing station.
Safety scanners can be mounted both vertically and horizontally. The first mounting method allows for replacing safety curtains and serves similar purposes. The result of the second mounting method is to delineate an area. It is most often used to designate a danger zone near or around a machine.
What makes Thermosafety different from a safety scanner?
Contrary to appearances, this is a legitimate question, because both devices:
- designate danger zones and monitor them,
- stop the machine or slow down its operation if the boundaries of the hazardous zone are violated,
- resume machine operation when the danger zone is not violated.
The devil, as usual, is in the details. Thermosafety safety system distinguishes between people and the rest of the environment. To help understand this key difference in operation, it is worth demonstrating it in a practical application.
1. When the zone is empty
When there is no object in the danger zone, both devices do not stop the machine’s operation.
2. When a person enters the zone
Both devices take the appropriate action – stop the machine’s operation.
3. Unplanned human presence in the zone
If a worker is in the danger zone and another mistakenly restarts the machines, Thermosafety will stop their operation. In the case of the safety scanner, the machines will continue to operate until the laser is cut.
4. An object enters the danger zone
The safety scanner reacts and stops the machine. Thermosafety recognizes that the object is not human, so it takes no action.
Designating danger zones with a 3D safety scanner and Thermosafety
3D safety scanners also allow the designation of different danger zones and the definition of an alarm for each. However, safety scanners offer less flexibility in defining them.
There are more differences in favor of Thermosafety!
This is not the end of the differences between one system and another. Others include:
- the function to record events (scanners do not have such a function),
- the shape of the base of the designated zone is fully customizable (3D scanners do not offer such an option).
