UNITED DISTILLERS & VINTNERS SPECIFY 2,800 SCHMERSAL SAFETY SWITCHES WITH INDIVIDUAL CODES
United Distillers & Vintners, the world’s leading spirits company, has specified Schmersal safety interlock switches to guard access doors on more than 350 packaging machines at three of its bottling plants in Scotland.
The 44 packaging lines operating at the three plants de-palletise spirits bottles, clean, fill, cap and label them, and then pack them into cases and palletise them for onward dispatch. The packaging lines handle the world’s most famous spirits brands including Smirnoff Vodka, Gordons Gin, and J&B, Bells and Johnnie Walker whiskies.
Commenting on the choice of Schmersal AZ16zi safety interlock switches, UDV spokesman Allan Tweddell says that when the company initiated a programme to upgrade the door guarding on all its machines, operator safety was the priority.
“We were concerned that, with the traditional safety switches fitted by machine manufacturers, it was possible for operators or maintenance engineers to use a spare ‘key’ to actuate the switch and run the machine with the guard door open.” He says: “We chose Schmersal because the AZ16zi switches are activated by an individually coded, geometrically unique actuating key with 15,000 different combinations, to prevent anyone from gaining access to a machine with a duplicate key.”
Explains Allan Tweddell: “The 350 machines each have an average of eight doors (one machine has 30 doors!), so with 2,800 doors to code we need to ensure that, in any plant, no two door switches have the same code.”
Schmersal UK’s general manager Terry Hayward says the United Distiller & Vintners’ installation demonstrates the almost unlimited potential of the AZ16zi switch in safety guarding applications and adds that UDV still have enough codes left for at least 12,200 more doors!
Explaining the development of the AZ16zi, he says conventional safety interlock switches are only available with a standard key (actuator), designed to prevent the guard switch being bypassed using screwdrivers, paperclips and other objects. However, these switches can be bypassed using a similar standard key obtained from another machine or from the stores department. This practice is particularly common in plants where a large number of machines are fitted with the same type of switch.
Schmersal individually-coded, safety interlock switches represent a new generation of mechanical guard switches. And with 15,000 key combinations available, engineers can now specify a switch, safe in the knowledge that it can never be bypassed with a key from another machine.
The tamper-resistant design includes non-removable actuating heads and high-strength stainless steel keys that tolerate mechanical abuse without damage.
The three versions available – AZ16zi, AZ17zi and AZ20zi – are designed for use as safety interlocks on moveable machine guards which, when open, expose operators or maintenance personnel to machine hazards.
Typical applications include protective gratings, hinged or swiveling covers, access panels and other types of moveable guards. An IP67 rating also makes the switches ideal for hostile environments.
All versions are of two-piece design, consisting of the switch mechanism and the individually-coded actuator key that is hard-mounted directly to the moveable guard. When the guard is opened the normally-closed (NC) contacts are forced to open through a direct mechanical linkage with the key.
The positive-break NC contacts ensure that, when the key is removed, the circuit is interrupted and the machine is stopped. When the guard is closed the key forces the NC contacts to re-close and NO contacts to re-open.
The switches are also available in 3 pole versions with one normally open and two normally closed. This gives greater flexibility because two contacts can be connected directly to an appropriate safety relay with the third available as a signaling contact.
To allow flexibility when installing the switches, four key entry locations are available on the AZ16zi and AZ17zi, and two are available on the AZ20zi. The AZ20zi also features high-speed key withdrawal.
All switches meet stringent international safety standards including BG, UL and CSA.
Ends
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