Machine Safety: Updating ISO 13849-1 & compliance for robots

On Feb. 7, I wrote a blog titled – ISO 13849-1 compliance is mandatory for robot applications (ANSI/RIA/ISO 10218-1&2: 2011). This particular blog has created a significant amount of feedback and questions, which was my goal.

You see, several colleagues we’re sending me conflicting understandings of the developments within and between the ongoing update cycle for RIA 15.06 and ISO 10218-1:2011. So, my provocative blog stirred a lot of chatter among interested readers and several different interpretations of the developing requirements. I’m bringing this to your attention because several US standards are in update cycles and also dealing with the emergence of ISO 13849-1:2006 with its impact on the functional safety of machinery.

With that said, for robots and their applications, I wish to point you to an article written by the leaders of RIA (Robotics Industries Association) to help readers understand their current position and direction. The article is on page 21 of the June Control Engineering magazine (print and digital versions) and links back to my blog for reference.

In my opinion, they offer a very straight forward explanation of their revision’s current status which should be helpful to us all. Being on several standards committees myself I know that we need to wait for the final version to be published to know for sure what gets finalized. We should also expect several more updates and changes in direction between now and when their update cycle is finalized. Additionally, we standards writers always try to eliminate any and all confusion as any confusion defeats the purpose of a standard. My thanks to RIA, and everyone else, for your very constructive comments.

And, best of luck to the RIA 15.06 working committee with the final revision.

Your comments or suggestion are always welcome so please let us know your thoughts. Submit your ideas, experiences, and challenges on this subject in the comments section below. Click on the following text if you don’t see a comments box, then scroll down: Machine Safety – updating ISO 13849-1 compliance for robots.

Related articles:

Robotics Industries Association is revising safety standard

ISO 13849-1 compliance is mandatory for robot applications (ANSI/RIA/ISO 10218-1&2: 2011)

EN ISO 13849-1; 2008 – Are We Ready By December 2011?

Contact: www.jbtitus.com for “Solutions for Machine Safety”.

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