Mersen, that company formerly known as Ferraz Shawmut, published a new Protection Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) Quiz on thermal protection. This is the latest quiz in their program that challenges participants to see if they're up to speed on the best practices in electrical safety. The quiz is online at http://ep-us.mersen.com/PIQ.
They tell us that participants can take the quiz and enter a drawing to win a $100
gift card. Three winners are selected every month.  read more »

In upcoming issues of Control Design, we'll explore subjects that include:  read more »

• How to design machine safety into your automation system.
• What an integrated controls architecture means to design, commissioning and overall time-to-market.
• What you need to know to compete globally.
• What the real differences are among the various Ethernet flavors of fast motion buses.
• The threat of electronics to pneumatics and hydraulics as power sources.
• Where relays fit in today's programmable machine control.

For your machine safety system, do you rely on hard relays, programmable relays or programmable safety controllers (safety PLCs)?

Although safety component suppliers are quick to point out the improved productivity and efficiency that can be gained with new machine safety standards, machine builders may be loathe to make the switch from EN 954-1 because the alternatives are more difficult and costly to deal with. But not only will machine builders and end users have to comply with either EN ISO 13849-1 or EN IEC 62061 by the end of this year, they are even beginning to come around to the suppliers' way of thinking, according to a new report from IMS Research.  read more »

It seems like I've been hearing an awful lot about safety lately--the need for improved safety measures, more integrated safety systems, tighter control, etc.

I brought up safety recently in another post related to machine control access, wondering who should worry about machine access security. Most of what I hear/read sounds like the burden falls primarily on the end user, although that could be changing.  read more »

Where do you look for help to better understand changing safety standards?  read more »

Our May 2010 cover story, Safety to Operate, makes a case for being able to sell machine safety to your customer as a clear productivity and cost enhancer. Do your customers get it?

Functional safety requirements are mandatory for European machinery, but it can be a different story for similar safety requirements in North America. Which regulations do you follow?

Spring is coming and we all need to get ready for it, including our machines. The perfect machine is one free of maintenance but let's get real, these types of machines are just a dream. Across the industry there are different testing methods, such as software emulation, hardware simulation, prototyping and beta testing, that are used to verify that your plant floor machines work as intended when they were fabricated. What testing methods do you use to test your plant operations? Do you mix and match different testing protocols?

Does the design of your machine safety system give you the option of choosing between programmable controllers or relays? Does your comfort factor lie with safety relays? What about your customers?

Read "Safety Adds Complexity and Function" to find out more.