Product category:
Machine Safety Components
News Release from: Schneider Electric | Subject: XUS-L light curtains
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 02 November 2001
Light curtains protect PG Tips tea
machinery
Unilever Bestfoods has equipped the palletiser and bulk bag filler which handle its popular PG Tips tea with the compact new integrated XUS-L light curtains from Telemecanique
Unilever Bestfoods, one of the UK's largest manufacturers of food products, and owner of the Brooke Bond brand, has equipped the palletiser and bulk bag filler which handle its popular PG Tips tea with the compact new integrated XUS-L light curtains from Telemecanique, a brand of Schneider Electric The new light curtains, which have dual-channel safety relay outputs, and fully meet the requirements for type 4 applications, replace older single-channel units, providing enhanced safety and greatly improved reliability
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 13 Dec 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Other Telemecanique products included in the new light curtain installations include XUK photosensors and Preventa XPS muting modules which provide a muting function to allow loaded pallets or bags to leave the protected zone, together with XVB beacons which give a clear visual indication of when the light curtain is muted.
"One of the key reasons we chose XUS-L light curtains was because of their excellent integrated diagnostic functions," said Steve Wake, engineering technician at Unilever Bestfoods' Manchester site.
"In particular, we like the numerical display which makes optimum alignment easy - you just move the transmitter and receiver so that the numbers on the display increase.
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After 99-99 is reached, the display then changes to read OK-OK, to show that 100% of the beams are aligned.
Most other models have only a go/no-go indication, which is far less useful." "In the event of a machine stoppage, the advanced diagnostics also allow us to locate the problem easily and quickly," continued Wake.
"This is a very important factor in an industry like ours, where downtime is extremely expensive." Another benefit of the new light curtains is closer beam spacing, which means that they can be mounted nearer to the palletiser and bag filler, while still achieving the required stopping time, and the risk of small objects passing between the beams into the hazardous areas is eliminated.
In addition, the integral safety outputs mean that few external components are needed, and the compact construction made installation straightforward, in spite of space restrictions.
An important improvement in reliability is provided by the new XVB beacon, with its LED light source which has a virtually indefinite life.
As a result, bulb failures which, in the past, contributed significantly to downtime, are a thing of the past.
In the unlikely event of a bulb failure, this is detected by the Preventa module, and the system fails to safe.
At present, the new light curtains have been fitted, as a pilot project, to seven different entry points on the palletiser installation which handles PG Tips, and on the bulk bag filling unit.
Their ease of installation, reliability and performance have, however, proved entirely satisfactory.
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