5 of the Most Relevant ISO Standards for Machine Guarding

5 of the Most Relevant ISO Standards for Machine Guarding

Safety is central to everything we do at Rite-Hite, and nowhere does that ring truer than with our machine guarding products. No operation can reach its full potential unless the proper safety precautions are put into place. After all, if your workers are getting injured, you’re going to not only run out of workers, but the end product will likely suffer as well. For this reason, many regulations have been put into place to ensure safety, efficiency and profitability when working with potentially hazardous machinery.

Many of these regulations become standards for the industry and equipment involved. While there are variations of standards, like regional standard EN and BS-EN national standards, nearly all of these are similarly covered under the International Standards, or ISO. These specifications mean that when a machine is designed it will meet certain requirements of the Machinery Directive. These standards also provide solutions to common issues and are developed by a team that is a mix of manufacturers, users and authorities.

With all the standards, out there, it’s important to pinpoint what is relevant to your machinery so here we will explore the most relevant ISO standards for machine guarding products that Rite-Hite carries:

ISO 13857: Safety Distances

The purpose of this standard is to prevent any breach in a machinery hazard zone. This is done by establishing values for safety distances for both industrial and non-industrial environments. In addition, it gives data on distances regarding access to lower limbs and upper limbs that needs to be addressed with area openings.

Example: Defender

ISO 13855: Positioning of Safeguards

Establishes the positioning of safeguards with respect to the approach speeds of the human body. In addition, it provides a methodology to determine minimum distances to a hazard zone from the detection zone or from actuating devices of safeguards.

This includes electro-sensitive protective equipment, including light curtains and light grids, as well as interlocking guards without guard locking and two-hand control devices.

ISO 13849-1: Safety-related Parts of Control Systems

Provides safety requirements and guidance on the principles for the design and integration of safety-related parts of control systems (SRP/CS), including the design of software. This specifies characteristics that include the performance level required for carrying out safety functions and is applicable for all kinds of machinery.

Example: VertiGuard

ISO 10218-1 & 10218-2: Safety Requirements for Industrial Robots & Robot Systems and Integration

While ISO 10218-1 doesn’t apply to non-industrial robots or the robot as a complete machine, it specifies the requirements and guidelines for the safe design, protective measures and information for use of industrial robots. It describes basic hazards associated and provides requirements to for risk reduction.

In addition to ISO 10218-1, ISO 10218-2 also specifies requirement for the industrial robot system as part of an integrated manufacturing system.

Other standards can be applicable to these process hazards, and these updated standards are included in changing OSHA regulations, among other regulatory bodies.

ISO descriptions taken from:

International Organization for Standardization catalogue

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