Automated barrier door

Rite-Hite Machine Guarding has introduced an automated barrier door, the Defender. Designed to guard machinery, contain processes and protect employees from robotic/machine movement zones, the new door has patent-pending upgrades to its non-contact safety switch configuration, control systems and interlocking capabilities.

The door has a new, more resilient curtain material that resists a wider array of application driven hazards and offers optional variable frequency drive to control curtain speed. In addition, its new quick-disconnect cables allow for easier installation and integration than comparable barrier doors.

The Defender is designed for safeguarding device for robotic welding cells, material handling, automated assembly, palletizing/packaging machinery and other applications. It also contains fumes, sparks, smoke, mist, flying debris, excess noise and other common manufacturing process by-products. The Defender’s roll-up design uses a small footprint in a typically crowded manufacturing cell.

It takes into account all aspects of new regulations – OSHA (ISO 13849-1) and RIA (EN 10218-1) regulations.

Other innovations include: a PLe hold-down mechanism, which locks the door in the “down” position to allow for machine “de-energizing” time (necessitated by issues such as roll inertia in the paper industry).