Page 18 - MetalForming May 2011

Safety Update
Safety Standard Updates: ANSI B11.0 and ANSI B11.19
The American National Stan- dards Institute (ANSI) and B11 Standards, Inc. publish 24 safety standards for metalworking (cutting and forming) machinery, known as the B11 series. Two important standards in this series that have just been revised: ANSI B11.0, Safety of Machinery; General Requirements and Risk Assess- ment; and ANSI B11.19 Perform- ance Criteria for Safeguarding.
In the absence of machine-specific standards, these two standards combine to form the foundation not only for B11 machine-specific (Type-C) standards, but also for other industrial machinery lack- ing a machine-specific safety standard.
The B11 standards and technical reports can be associated with the ISO A-B-C level structure:
• Type-A standards (basis standards) provide basic concepts, principles for design, and general aspects that can be applied to machinery.
• Type-B standards (generic safety standards) address one or more safety aspects or one or more types of safe- guards that can be used across a range of machinery.
• Type-C standards (machinery safe- ty standards) address detailed safety requirements for a particular machine or group of machines.
ANSI B11.0 is considered an A-level standard; it applies to an array of machines and contains very general requirements. The scope of the standard states that “the standard applies to new, modified or rebuilt power driven machines, not portable by hand, used to shape and/or form metal or other mate- rials by cutting, impact, pressure, elec- trical or other processing techniques, or a combination of these processes.”
More specifically, the revised standard states that machinery suppliers and users are responsible for defining and achieving acceptable risk. The standard provides additional details and descrip- tions of the responsibilities of users and suppliers. The primary performance
requirement of the standard: Any risks associated with the operation, mainte- nance, dismantling and disposal of machinery shall be reduced to an accept- able level. The standard includes a for- mal method to conduct and document the risk-assessment process, and also iden- tifies some preparations that must be made before a risk assessment begins. The standard presents the basic risk- assessment process in a step-by-step approach to assist in achieving this goal.
ANSI B11.19, considered a B-level standard, addresses general safety ele- ments that can be used across a range of machinery. The scope of this standard states that it provides “performance requirements for the design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance
of the safeguarding; e.g., guards, safe- guarding devices, awareness devices and safeguarding methods.” This stan- dard also provides performance require- ments for complementary equipment and measures, safe work procedures and safety functions.
New requirements and information in ANSI B11.19 address protective (safe- ty) stops, perimeter guarding, muting, bypass, emergency stops including rope/cable pulls, three-position enabling devices, hold-to-run control, guard inter- locking switches with guard locking, and presence-sensing device initiation (PSDI). There also is greater emphasis on risk assessment, to allow safety solutions other than those meeting requirements contained in the previous control-reliability clause (6.1). The intent is to maintain a high level of safety performance for safety-related functions, but also allow safety solutions that can be reasonably justified through the process of a docu- mented risk assessment that meets the required risk reduction.
Order the standards online at
http://webstore.ansi.org.
Submitted by Mike Carlson, safety
products manager, Banner Engineering, Minneapolis, MN: 763/544-3164; www.bannerengineering.com
Visual Warnings, via New Stack Light Lamps
Pepperl+Fuchs, Twinsburg, OH, introduces the VAZ-Lamp series of stack lights, designed
to complement the company’s extensive line of industrial-grade stack light LEDs, audible alarms and related accessories. VAZ-Lamp stack lights provide low-cost visual warnings or ready-status indication in applications where LED-lit stack lights prove too costly. The stack lights—blue, green, clear, yellow and red—are
lit by an incandescent bulb. Should a bulb burn out, it can quickly and easily be replaced for a few dollars, rather than having to replace the entire stack light. Stack the bulbs up to four- high using a Pepperl+Fuchs’ As-Interface light tower module, or use them as a stand-alone solution stacked up to five lights high. Pepperl+Fuchs: 330/486-0001; www.pepperl-fuchs.us
16 MetalForming/May 2011
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