Safety Curtains

The safety light curtains and safety light grids of the SLC and SLG range meet the requirements of Category type 2 and type 4 according to EN 61496.
Typical applications for safety light barriers are on robots, automatic-processing plants, transfer lines, rack storage and pallet loaders.

In these active optoelectronic protective devices (AOPD), the emitter and receiver are fitted in two separate enclosures. An infrared signal is emitted by the transmitter, this is evaluated and monitored by the receiver. If the light beam is interrupted by an object or a person, a stop signal is emitted to bring the machine to a standstill.

The protection field is defined by the height and width of the protection field. The protected height is the range between the first and last infrared light beam of a light curtain. The protected height defines the physical size of the system to be used. The protected width or operating range is the distance between the transmitter and receiver unit.

If the light beam is interrupted, a signal is emitted to bring the dangerous movement of the machine to a standstill. Here, the following rule applies: the smaller the distance between two adjacent light beams, the more accurate the detection sensitivity of the AOPD.

For the detection of body parts, a distinction is made between finger, hand and body protection. DIN EN ISO 13855 sets the biometric data for finger protection to 14 mm, for hand detection to 30 mm, for leg detection up to 70 mm and for body detection to over 70 mm. Safety light curtains are generally used to detect the intrusion of a complete body. Safety light curtains are multiple beam systems (resolution < 40 mm) and can also detect smaller objects in case of intrusion into the protected field.

The optoelectronic safety light grids and safety light curtains can be smoothly connected through a M12 connector; they are equipped with a diagnostic interface as well as an LED for status indication. The safety light curtains or light grids feature an integrated safety monitoring module with start/restart interlock and contactor control. Additional functions such as blanking, muting and a synchronisation function for the light curtains are also available.

The product range SLC and SLG therefore have the greatest possible flexibility for the protection of different hazards.