Page 20 - Occupational Health & Safety, February 2018

MACHINE GUARDING
In general, OSHA’s view on robot safety is that if the employer is meeting the requirements of ANSI/RIA R15.06, Industrial Robots and Robot Systems—Safety Requirements, then the manufacturer has no issues. For guidance on how to select and integrate safe- guarding into robot systems, refer to the Robotic Industries Asso- ciation’s Technical Report: RIA TR R15.06-2014 for Industrial Ro- bots and Robot Systems—Safety Requirements and Safeguarding.
Published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Robotics Industries Association (RIA), ANSI/RIA R15.06 is a consensus standard to provide guidance on the proper use of the safety features embedded into robots, as well as how to safely inte- grate robots into factories and work areas. The latest revision of the standard, ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012, references for the first time ISO 10218-1 & 2 to make it compliant with international standards al- ready in place in Europe. Part 1 of ISO 10218 details the robot itself; Part 2 addresses the responsibilities of the integrator.
There are also new requirements in ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 for collaborative robots; in this case, ISO 10218 and the ISO/TS 15066 Technical Specification. This standard clarifies the four types of collaboration: Safety Monitored Stop, Hand Guiding, Speed & Sep- aration Monitoring, and Power & Force Limiting. ISO/TS 15066 holds key information, including guidance on maximum allowable speeds and minimum protective distances, along with a formula for establishing the protective separation distance and data to ver- ify threshold limit values for power and force limiting to prevent pain or discomfort on the part of the operator.
The requirement for risk assessments is one of the biggest changes in the RIA standard. The integrator, or the end user if they are performing the job of an integrator, now must conduct a risk assessment of each robotic system and summarize ways to miti- gate against these risks. This may involve procedures and training, incorporating required machine safeguarding, and basic safety management. Risk assessments calculate the potential severity of an injury, the operator’s exposure to the hazard, and the difficulty in avoiding the hazard to arrive at a specific risk level ranging from negligible to very high. In the future, as cobot use rapidly expands throughout industry, regulation of this technology will grow more focused and specific. Consider this: Although cobots currently rep- resent only 3 percent of all industrial robots sold, they are projected to account for 34 percent of the industrial robots sold by 2025, a market that set to triple in size and dollar volume over that period.
Conclusion
The next 10 years will be pivotal for American manufacturing, and success largely depends on companies’ ability to navigate the tran- sition to Industry 4.0-style automation and the widespread use of robots. While few have as dire a view as Elon Musk, it is critical that employee safety is not lost in the excitement as we shepherd robots out of their cages to work hand-in-hand with humans.
Carrie Halle is Vice President of Marketing for Rockford Systems, LLC, www.rockfordsystems.com.
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February 21, 2018
2 p.m. Eastern • 1 p.m. Central • 11 a.m. Pacific
Employers Must Put Safety First in a Drug-Friendly Culture
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, drug and alcohol-related deaths in the workplace soared in 2016 with a spike of more than 30 percent in a single year. The BLS data also show that fatal work injuries in 2016 were the highest since 2008. These trends are not the way we want to go, and robust drug testing policies as well as a work culture that enforces safety first is the path to reversal. The effort to legalize marijuana, whether for ostensible medical or recreational purposes, is the tip of the iceberg in an effort to legalize all drugs. U.S. employers have the opportunity to not only hold the line amid our drug-friendly culture, but also a responsibility to protect the vulnerable worker from accident or injury by those who may be under the influence at work.
About the speaker:
Jo McGuire is an advocate, speaker and writer for safe and drug-free workplaces, families and communities as the founder
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