Evaluation of a Presence Sensing Switch and New Guard Design for the AMP Electric Wire Terminating Press

摘要

Methods of firing an AMP electric wire terminating press were evaluated and ranked as to productivity, quality of terminated wire, and time of learning with respect to the types of machine guarding used. A new guard design was developed. The development of the new guard design was planned to simulate as much as possible the operation of the press with no guard present with the thought that such steps would enable the operator to achieve production rates which would be comparable to those attainable in the unguarded condition. The effects of armrest influence and workpiece set up and removal on overall production were also evaluated. Removing the operator from having to make any conscious decision regarding actuation of the press allowed the productivity to be greatly increased. In the test conducted in this study the design concepts employed in building the guard enabled the operator to work very nearly to the production level which he would achieve working in an unguarded condition. The new guard was superior in productivity to that obtained using the AMP regular guards. The present sensing switch prevented the operator from inadvertently actuating the press while a guard was present. The use of armrests appeared to result in productivity increases.