Building a safety device into mechanical equipment increases the intrinsic safety of the equipment. It is best to incorporate the intrinsic safety feature during the designing stage of equipment when you install a safety device inside the equipment.

(1) Built-in design of safety devices

-1Types of safety devices

The following types of safety devices are available:

1)Movable barrier safety device
2)Two-hand control safety device
3)Photoelectric safety device
4)Sweep safety device
5)Pull-out safety device

-2Built-in design of safety devices

Case example of movable barrier safety device:

The mechanical equipment with this safety feature implemented will not run if any part of the body is placed within the guard zone. If you install a built-in interlocking control as part of the equipment during the initial design stage, it can prevent disasters resulting from deliberate alteration such as removal of the guard.

(2) Safety measures for non-intrinsically safe device

You may need to implement additional safety measures for purchased equipment or when it is difficult to install a built-in safety device into the equipment during the initial design stage. The best way for such cases would be to implement safety measures in a step-by-step manner as shown in the below figure.