Safety Light Curtains Satisfy Revised Anthropometric Data

Scientific Technologies, Inc. introduces the groundbreaking MicroSafe MC4700-12 Series of safety light curtains. They are the first and only safety light curtains available today specifically engineered to meet the safeguarding demands of revised anthropometric data that supports a reduction in selected allowable dimensions of mechanical machine guards.

These safety light curtains feature a minimum object detection capability of 12 mm, provide response time as fast as 6.69 milliseconds, and are third party certified as a Type 4 device to the rigorous requirements of IEC 61496-1,-2, the international standard on active opto-electric protective devices. The combination of 12 mm object resolution and 6.69 msec response time enable the product to be used in applications where it is beneficial to reduce the minimum distance from the danger zone, consistent with distance calculation formulas and appropriate standards.

The ultra-compact transmitter and receiver allow the MC4700-12 to be mounted on small, automatic assembly machines and in other applications where a safety light curtain was previously too large. Inline connector cables allow the transmitter and receiver to be mounted in crowded locations where a standard connector would not fit. Alignment is easy with STI's patented Individual Beam Indicator lights.

Much of the safety criteria for today's machine safeguarding standards were based on body measurement data taken 50 to 60 years ago. A 1990s study commissioned by Donald Vaillancourt and Stover Snook of the Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health indicates that the original recommendations from the 1940s are inconsistent with today's workforce, and that several changes in the machine guard drawings are warranted when compared to the anthropometric survey data. MC4700-12 safety light curtains are designed to be consistent with the machine safety needs of today's workforce as identified by Vaillancourt and Snook findings.