In the packaging industry, there are a variety of mechanical equipment, such as filling machine, sealing machine, labeling machine, packaging machine, winding film machine, palletizer, unpalletizer, etc., such mechanical equipment generally has the import and export of product loading or unloading, personnel’s upper limb or the whole body can contact the dangerous moving parts inside the machine through this opening, there may be various mechanical risks.

How can personnel be prevented from coming into contact with dangerous moving parts from the import and export of materials?

Detailed safety requirements are given in standard EN 415-10, and the openings for equipment to and from materials can generally be divided into three types:

Small openings, marked with an S
Medium opening available in three sizes “Ma)”, “Mb)” and “Mc)”
Large openings, marked with L

USI-0002

The standard EN 415-10 specifies different safety requirements depending on the size of the opening of the equipment, the location and the way in and out of the material.

1. Small openings

Small openings (width or height <120mm openings), there are detailed requirements in the standard EN ISO 13857, different sizes of openings, need to meet the requirements of different safety distances, if due to equipment space reasons can not meet the requirements of the safety distance in the table, you can refer to the requirements of medium-sized openings, increase the curved tunnel protection at the opening position.

2. Medium opening

Medium opening has three sizes “Ma)”, “Mb)” and “Mc)”, generally this opening needs to add an additional tunnel type protective cover, according to the shape of the tunnel type protection of the position of the medium opening (straight or curved) and the way of entering and leaving the material (whether there is a conveyor line) is different, its safety distance also has different safety requirements. Refer to the following table for specific requirements, such as the material is sent to the machine through the roller conveyor line, the opening size is 400*600mm, this opening belongs to the Mc type of medium-sized opening, the safety distance should be greater than 1100mm.

In addition to tunnel protection, automatic protection devices, ESPE electrosensitive protection devices, tunnel protection devices with interlocking movable protection devices can be added at the entrance and exit locations to prevent personnel from reaching dangerous moving parts inside the equipment opening.