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.
...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.
Posted at 07:45 PM Read More
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.
...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.
On Monday afternoon, Tom Doyle of Industrial Safety Integration and I will be presenting a session covering risk assessment and control reliability.
Posted at 08:28 PM Read More
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.
Posted at 01:35 PM 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.
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.
Posted at 08:57 PM Read More
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.
Posted at 11:09 AM Read More
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
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Entry Heading
Entry Content
Entry Heading
Entry Heading
Entry Heading
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 05, 2007 08:54 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 05, 2007 08:54 PM