Safety components CD-ROM
Original article date: February 2000
A new CD-Rom from Banner looked like it was worth reviewing – and it was! If you’re looking for help on safety components, this has it all. Tommy Miller has a look.
Here’s a free CD-Rom that will be very useful for anybody designing machinery or equipment that needs safety components. Banner’s range includes everything from safety relay modules to guard switches and light curtains, so just about everything you might need is included, apart from some of the more specialised items.
But although the CD runs independently, therefore not clogging your hard disc with information, there are also hot-links for e-mail and access to Banner’s web site. And it is also good to see that the company is bold enough to have an item on the CD called ‘shameless marketing gimmicks’. I won’t spoil the surprise here – get a copy of the CD for yourself.
When the CD is first started, users have a choice of four sections: products, applications, standards and reference. Navigating is extremely easy, with clear descriptions of the product categories and the option to view the technical data. The product datasheets, in PDF format, are some of the most detailed that I have seen on any CD-Rom, so you really can use this CD for selecting components with confidence. For instance, there are no less than eight pages of data for the 31mm limit switches alone!
The Applications section gives examples of what safety products might be used in various situations, which can be helpful if you do not have broad experience of designing safety systems for machines.
Turning to the Standards section, this gives the game away that Banner is a USA-based company; two standards categories are offered, namely US and International. Having said that, the section on international standards does concentrate on EN and IEC standards. Although this is a fairly comprehensive exploration of the subject, most of what the section contains should already be familiar to anybody that is designing machinery in the UK.
Something that is particularly well executed on the CD is the reference section. This has a glossary that is best described as ‘thorough’, together with frequently asked questions and a section that covers common mistakes (and, therefore, how to avoid them). And the ‘resources’ sub-section gives the user access to contact details, charts (for separation distances, range reduction and minimum object size detection), OSHA reprints (American occupational safety and health standards – useful if you are building machinery destined for the USA), and the Banner machine safety products catalogue.
Minimum system requirements are a 486 or Pentium processor, Windows 95, 98 or NT 3.5 or later, and 16MB RAM. Extensive use is made of Adobe Acrobat and, if you don’t already have it, you can install Acrobat Reader from the CD.
This is undoubtedly one of the better CD-Roms around and, as it is free of charge, it comes highly recommended! JS
Tackling noise and vibration
Noise and vibration are a serious issue for manufacturers of machinery and hand-held equipment, and CE marking requires that such things be given due consideration.
However, the equipment for measuring these parameters is not always owned by the manufacturers who need to carry out the tests, which is why Castle Rental Systems is launching a rent-a-meter service. A wide range of equipment is available, suitable for a variety of different applications, and every instrument is issued with a calibration certificate prior to being dispatched to the hirer.
A catalogue – including prices – is available from Castle. Just use the Free Information card service.
A Y2K recovery guide from HSE
Happy new year! At least, it will be if you have not suffered any Y2K problems. If you have (and remember that they will not all have necessarily happened on January 1st), there is a useful publication from the Health & Safety Executive, entitled ‘The morning after the Millennium before’, which gives advice on how to get going again (safely) if you suffer from a Y2K bug. This PDF document can be viewed or downloaded on the HSE’s web site athttp://w ww.open.gov.uk/hse/pubns/indg302.pdf
February 2000