Safety fences play a significant role in protecting people from industrial machinery hazards during manufacturing. Threats are imposed via automated machinery, process control equipment, robotic work cells, linear motion track system,etc., and to combat these threats, safety fencing is necessary. Safety fences assess a physical barrier between hazards and operators and are a practical and low-maintenance solution to reduce the risk of injury, machine downtime, and costly damages. Let’s elucidate more on the benefits of safety fences.
1. Guarding hazardous area
When working in an industrial area, you need fences to protect you from coming into contact with any kind of hazards. However, protecting yourself isn’t the only thing these fences do. The most basic thing a safety fence does is determining the size of the hazardous area that needs to be guarded. Once measured, panels and doors can be selected to fit the area. When choosing the panel sizes, it is vital to consider the door’s location. Other options to consider when designing the system are opening from the right or left single or double door, handles types, etc.
2. Height of the fencing
Choosing the right height for the fence is important to ensure that no injuries occur from reaching over the topmost part. According to ISO 13857, the required safety distances to prevent accidents on limbs. The height of the danger area and protective structure are used to determine how much space distance is required for the fence from the hazard site. Injury risks from reaching through fences also apply, and for that, it’s safe to measure the opening size; a distance of at least 120mm is required. This way, we can understand and select the right guard fencing system.
3. Operator’s safety
It is really important to plan the safety conditions required for the operators when they enter the guarding system. One thing to do is keep operators safe and protected by installing a safety interlock door handle with push buttons on the post. The signals from these buttons and posts are used to shut down power when a potentially hazardous situation surfaces while the operators are in the work cell. The end-user usually installs the safety interlock door handle, pushbuttons, and connector for running the signals back to the safety controller. To take away the load from the task, some fences have an option. The option includes a wired that is preinstalled and mounted safety interlock door handle, pushbuttons, to the safety controller.
4. Ease of install
Safety fencing systems like these are held together with many nuts, bolts, and joining brackets. The installation is pretty simple but can take time to reach completion. All the nuts and bolts need to be tightened, and it can be a tedious task. Also, if you need to expand or re-arrange the system, you have to go through hardware removal. Hence to make the installation procedure faster, most technology companies have an innovative mounting system that doesn’t require any tools. The panels lock tight and securely while making a simple connection to make things progress faster.
Conclusion
These are some of the benefits of safety fencing systems. Now, you know why it’s beneficial to use safety fences in the industrial processes to minimize hazards. It ensures safety for each and every employee working in the construction.
