In 2017, a report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed over 60,000 non-fatal injuries happened to workers in the UK's manufacturing sector. With automation and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies becoming more prevalent, this figure is expected to decrease dramatically as the number of potential risks to plant workers falls. Here, Emolice explains how motion control components can improve both worker and functional safety. Safety of both workers and a system or piece of equipment remain top of the agenda for many plant engineers, particularly for those working with new technologies that they have minimal experience of. While for many years safety resided with single components, such as light curtains and relays, automation and the creation of the 'smart factory' has enabled the evolution of plant safety to a system-level process. One technology that is doing this in particular is the encoder.
展开▼
