Functional Safety & Machine Safeguarding in the Food & Beverage Industry
September 30, 2021
Designing a functional safety system involves assessing risks, identifying solutions to those risks, and integrating machine safety devices. Having functional safety that works as designed is critically important within the food and beverage industry, where hygiene, cleanliness, and safety are paramount.
At elobau, we have the industry knowledge and hands-on experience to help you determine which aspect of functional safety best fits your application. We can create a customized machine safety solution for your food and beverage processing plant.
Contact us today with any questions or request a quote to get started on creating a safer food and beverage plant with our dependable safety sensor solutions.
Designing a functional safety system involves assessing risks, identifying solutions to those risks, and integrating machine safety devices. Having functional safety that works as designed is critically important within the food and beverage industry, where hygiene, cleanliness, and safety are paramount.
At elobau, we have the industry knowledge and hands-on experience to help you determine which aspect of functional safety best fits your application. We can create a customized machine safety solution for your food and beverage processing plant.
Functional Safety in Food & Beverage Plants
The food and beverage industry is populated with machines that work quickly and at elevated temperatures, often including dangerous cutting or slicing applications. To create a functional safety process in your food and beverage processing plant, you must first complete a risk assessment to identify specific hazards in your workplace.Machinery Hazards & Amputation Risks in Food & Beverage Plants
The top concern within food and beverage manufacturing plants is amputation. Machines contain many points within the mechanical operation where grinding gears, pullies, or moving parts can cause irreversible harm to an employee. OSHA guidelines reference three main points of amputation risk when dealing with hazardous mechanical components:- Point of Operation. This is the area where the machine performs cutting, shaping, boring, or forming applications.
- Power-Transmission Apparatus. This is where all the components within a mechanical system transmit energy, including flywheels, pulleys, belts, spindles, gears, and more.
- Other Moving Parts. While in operation, machines contain many moving parts, including reciprocating, rotating, and transverse moving parts.
Food & Beverage Processing Fail-Safe Devices
A critical component of any food and beverage manufacturing functional safety system is the successful implementation of fail-safe devices. It is extremely difficult to anticipate human error, and machine safeguarding sensors, switches, and devices can keep your operation running smoothly despite human mistakes or oversights.Machine Safety Sensors
Whether you want to track and count the fullness of a reject bin, increase tamper protection for bread slicers, or implement structural safety solutions for a bandsaw, machine safeguarding sensors are an excellent option to include within a functional safety system. Another application of machine safety sensors within food and beverage processing includes implementing safety guards to prevent an operator from tampering with a product and increasing the possibility of injury.E-Stop Buttons
Also referred to as emergency stop pushbuttons, E-Stop buttons act as the first line of defense while keeping workers safe. When pushed, E-Stops immediately halt all hazardous motions to reduce or eliminate further injury after a situation becomes hazardous. Used in combination with a safety controller, safety sensor, or other machine safeguarding devices, E-Stop buttons provide excellent performance levels.Safety Controllers
Safety controllers are designed with safety in mind. Highly customizable, safety controllers monitor your other safety devices to ensure everything is performing as intended. They provide safe, effective stops, starts, and functions throughout your functional safety system.Configured Safety Relays
Safety relays are similar to safety controllers in that they work together with all other components included within your functional safety system. They handle their own programming, eliminating the need for you to do your own. You can most often find safety relays in applications such as light curtains, safety mats, two-hand control devices, magnetic switches, emergency buttons, non-contact safety sensors, interlock safety switches, and more.Your Experts in Functional Safety Within Food & Beverage Processing Plants
If you would like to implement a functional safety system within your food and beverage manufacturing, processing, or packaging application, elobau is here to help. We provide resources so you can learn more about the different types of machine safety systems or identify machine safeguarding standards in your region.Contact us today with any questions or request a quote to get started on creating a safer food and beverage plant with our dependable safety sensor solutions.