TechArchive

Original article date: October 1999

Pilz has updated its well-known PC-based guide to its range of safety products. Tommy Miller tries out the latest version

Having decided that your machine needs to be CE marked, and that it must therefore have the appropriate safety components, how do you choose what to use? Of course the manufacturers all have plenty of literature, some of which is easier to read than others, but it can still be a laborious process. Pilz is trying to lead the way with an extremely well prepared interactive guide to safety products, prepared as a CD-Rom. The latest version, 4.03, is now available free of charge.

But as well as helping you to make the all-important selection, the CD-Rom also contains all of the technical information that you will need in order to check the specification (it is still your responsibility, remember) and to ensure that the components are correctly installed on your machine. When a selection has been made, it is simple to click on the ‘print’ icon to output a hard copy for your records. This shows the path taken in the selection process, but it is also possible to print the full technical data and wiring information for the hard-wired safety relays (this data is provided as PDF files, readable with Acrobat Reader).

For users who are new to subject there are some clear explanations provided. Take, for example, ‘severity of injury’. The help screen first gives a straightforward definition of a slight injury and a severe injury and then augments this with: “Take account of the worst case injury. If this is no more than a slight cut or bruise, then select S1 [slight]. If the consequences are more severe, up to and including death, then select S2 [severe].”

Making a product selection couldn’t really be made any simpler. First you select the product type from a pull-down menu, then you use the mouse to select the severity of injury, frequency of exposure and possibility of avoidance. As each of these selected, the screen changes to show potential safety category (B, 1, 2, 3 or 4). The list of candidate products is also revised each time a selection is made. But the clever bit is the way in which the table of safety categories is cross-referenced on screen to the list of candidate products, highlighting those which are more (or less) suitable.

Safety products that are covered by the CD-Rom include everything from the established base-level PNOZ safety relays to the PSS programmable safety systems. Other products listed are: two-hand relays, safety gate monitors, contact blocks, speed monitors, standstill monitors, safety time relays and the PNOZ plus modular safety system.

Once you have made your product selection, Pilz has also provided a facility on the CD-Rom for finding your local distributor or, indeed, one near to your customer, whether in the UK or abroad.

• Pilz 

October 1999