Thu - May 3, 2007

MS101 V2N4 - Laser Safety with Johnny Jones


Doug interviews Johnny Jones of Laser Professionals Inc. about current trends in research and industrial laser safety and hazard analysis. Johnny discusses the Laser Safety Officer Training Courses provided by Laser Professionals inc., including the course being held in Toronto, Ontario in conjunction with QPS Evaluation Services inc. Check out their web site at http://www.laser-professionals.com/ . Canadian Laser Safety Training information can be found at the QPS Evaluation Services web site, http://www.qps.ca/ . Follow the links from the home page to the Laser Safety Training pages.

Posted at 12:33 PM     Read More  

Tue - April 3, 2007

EN 1050/ISO 14121 Annex A Sample


A problem with interpretation of RSS feeds by iTunes resulted in people having problems downloading the audio for the Hazard Identification show. This posting should fix the problem.

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Mon - April 2, 2007

Introducing ISO 13849-1, Reliability of Safety Related Parts of Control Systems


This show was recorded live at the 2007 CSA/RIA Robotic Safety Conference in Toronto, Ontario in March, 2007.

Doug discusses the basic elements of the 2006 edition of ISO 13849-1 during a presentation given during the 2007 CSA/RIA Robotic Safety Conference in Toronto, Ontario. The presentation introduces Performance Levels (PL and PLr), Diagnostic Coverange (DC) and Common Cause Failures (CCF).

Learn the meaning of MTTFd, B10 and B10d and their significance in the design of safety systems for machinery.

This show runs 50:22.

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Fri - March 30, 2007

2007 CSA/RIA Robotic Safety Conference Report


The afternoon of the first day included sessions on Risk Assessment, Basic Safety Circuit Design and an RIA Risk Assessment Exercise.

...Morning sessions included discussion of on-going work by CSA in standardization, developments in robot safety standardization and a variety of case studies on the application of safeguarding devices to real-world installations.

...John Salmon presented a case study showing AR Milne ’s approach to developing a system, including correct specification of equipment in the purchase specification, engineering development of the system and inclusion of risk assessment as part of the design review process through final integration of the system.

...In the afternoon there were three sessions available, CSA Z432, Using Risk Assessment in Safeguarding Automated Systems and Advanced Safety Circuit Design.

...If you are using robots in your facility and you are not intimately familiar with CSA Z434 and CSA Z432 (for Canadian users) or ANSI RIA R15.06 and the ANSI B11 family of standards, you need to make the time to attend.

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Wed - March 28, 2007

CSA/RIA Robotic Safety Conference Update


Yesterday included sessions from Roberta Nelson-Shea on the coming changes to the robot standards. I was really glad to hear that the US and Canada are planning to adopt the new ISO 10218 standard for robot safety instead of continuing with a similar but different path under the current standards.

...We also had some good sessions from other presenters on guarding applications, including a good review of Presence Sensing Device application requirements from Ian Brough of SICK Optic, and a good, but somewhat rushed, session from Roberta N-S, Jim Van Kessel, Ian Brough and Tom Vardon on stop time measurement and analysis. Tom Doyle did his presentation on the business case for loss management - always interesting.

...This system uses three video cameras mounted in a single head that can be positioned above an area that needs safeguarding. The system takes three images and generates two 3D images from the data.... The really cool thing about this is that you can actually define differing protection levels at different heights, effectively assigning protection zones instead of just dealing with planes.

Posted at 06:23 AM     Read More  

Mon - March 26, 2007

Updates on Robotic Safety Conference


When I arrived this morning I discovered that my session had been bumped out to Wednesday morning.... Currently I'm sitting in Jeff Fryman's session on CSA Z434 and the comparison to RIA 15.06. Jeff just called a break, having covered the touchy 'two-switches per gate' section.

Posted at 10:33 AM     Read More  

Sun - March 25, 2007

CSA/RIA Robotic Safety Conference - Toronto


The meetings are being held at the Holiday Inn Select on Dixon Road in Toronto, right next to Pearson International Airport. This is an important conference for users of industrial robot systems because it gives them the chance to meet the people that wrote the standard, CSA Z434. The discussions at past conferences regarding the application of the control reliability requirements in the standard, as well as many other aspects of the use of robotic systems have been really good.... Case studies covering the application of new technologies, such as programmable electronic safety systems, networked interlock and emergency stop devices and programmable limiting devices are presented. There are also a number of other significant training sessions that go with this conference, including: Basic and Advanced Safety Circuit Design, Risk Assessment, Lockout under CSA Z460 and others.

On Monday afternoon, Tom Doyle of Industrial Safety Integration and I will be presenting a session covering risk assessment and control reliability.

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Thu - March 22, 2007

Safety Guy Podcast V2N2 - Hazard Identification


Doug discusses hazard identification, including sources for lists of hazards and provides links to key resources.

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Wed - March 21, 2007

OACETT Gives Award for Article


I was honoured this week with an award for a recent article on lockout published in the Ontario Technologist magazine.

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Fri - January 5, 2007

The Safety Guy V2N1 - Risk Scoring Systems - Tom Doyle


One of the key tools in carrying out a risk assessment is the scoring system used. There are lots of systems out there, so how do you choose one for your project? What about risk assessment and risk management software systems? Tom Doyle , President of Industrial Safety Integration joins Doug to discuss these important issues.

Posted at 09:39 AM     Read More  

Thu - December 21, 2006

Why we worry about the wrong things


In Time magazine's 4-Dec issue, Jeffery Kluger wrote an article titled" Why We Worry About The Things We Shouldn't...... His article gives some really clear background for why this happens in human thinking, and how dangerous this can be. In the hardcopy version of the article, a pyramid diagram is used to show the relative number of deaths from various sources.... Out of a total of 2.5 million deaths annually in the US, accidental deaths account for 109,277, or about 4.4%.... This doesn't sound like much,but when you look at just the accidental deaths, MVA's account for about 41% of all accidental deaths in the USA. The next closest cause is drug overdoses at 11,212, or 10.3% and Motorcycle accidents at 3,676 or 3.4%.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kluger's article didn't breakout industrial or occupational death rates, but it should be clear that driving is one of the most dangerous things we do. If you feel the need for a personal refresher, take a ride on the 401 through Toronto at almost any time of day.

Posted at 09:41 AM     Read More  

Wed - December 20, 2006

The Safety Guy V1N2 - Design Methodology and The Myth of Common Sense


Following along from the first show, Doug discusses the risk reduction hierarchy, the myth of Common Sense (or Why Common Sense ain't so common!), how to decide if your product is Safe Enough and why you should bother doing risk assessments.

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Fri - November 17, 2006

Podcast Schedule


Keep up to date with the Safety Guy. Each episode can be found on the calendar. Info on each show can be seen by clicking on the date.

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Thu - November 9, 2006

The Safety Guy V1N1 - Who is the Safety Guy? What is Safety Engineering?


Introducing your host, Doug Nix, and discussing entry into the Product Safety Business, the Hazard Based Safety Engineering Model and Risk Assessment.

Posted at 11:45 AM     Read More  


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