Allen Bradley Safety components

gosenbach · Mar 7, 2008

Hello everyone. I am working on a job and the customer specified Allen Bradley safety components. This is a long conveyor with several peices of equipment on it. I am going to have ~8 E-Stop buttons and brobably another 8-10 other types of interlocks. Probably all the other interlonks will be FerroGuards. I was initially planning on using Jocab Safety products on this since they have a very nice junction box (the Tina8) which woule make this a snap as every E-Stop button and interlock needs to have a status input coming back to the PLC (ControlLogix). However I am stuck with Allen Bradley Safety.

Does anyone out there have much experience with the FerroGuards? I have used 4 of them recently and on 2 of them, the aux info contact did not work. Is this just a fluke or can I expenct some of the 10 I am going to buy to not work properly?

Also, since I have so many safety devices, I was thinking about using the Minituar Modular components.
http://www.ab.com/en/epub/catalogs/3377539/5866177/5985760/4444281/4444307/

sing the Minituar Modular components.Probably the MSR210P and several MSR220Ps. No one here at my office has any experience with them so I am asking the great people here if those would work well or if something else would be recomended.

Thanks,
Greg.

OkiePC · Mar 7, 2008

gosenbach said:
Does anyone out there have much experience with the FerroGuards? I have used 4 of them recently and on 2 of them, the aux info contact did not work. Is this just a fluke or can I expenct some of the 10 I am going to buy to not work properly?

I have had problems with ferroguard and ferrotek swithes as well. The biggest problem is that one of the contacts may fail while the others continue to work, making troubleshooting difficult.

Allen Bradley makes great PLCs. I don't really care for any of their other stuff. Just my personal opinion.

mordred · Mar 7, 2008

I switched the ferrogaurds to the Stainless steel GD2's the Ferrogaurds were too easily busted. Nice about the GD2's is the auxillery contacts for the various safety levels but again more difficult to troubleshoot as a result

gosenbach · Mar 7, 2008

I totally agree. If Allen Bradley made skateboards, I am sure some of my customer's would spec that if the machine required a skateboard, it needs to be Allen Bradley

gosenbach · Mar 7, 2008

I switched the ferrogaurds to the Stainless steel GD2's the Ferrogaurds were too easily busted. Nice about the GD2's is the auxillery contacts for the various safety levels but again more difficult to troubleshoot as a result

The problem there is the stainless steel versions are not available with a QD. Which is a requirement here, so I am stuck with the plastic ones.

mordred · Mar 7, 2008

Ah too bad I know for me switching them made a huge differents almost 3 times, the time between failures

curlyandshemp · Mar 7, 2008

OkiePC said:
I have had problems with ferroguard and ferrotek swithes as well. The biggest problem is that one of the contacts may fail while the others continue to work, making troubleshooting difficult.

Allen Bradley makes great PLCs. I don't really care for any of their other stuff. Just my personal opinion.

Rockwell safety stuff is from Eja Ltd www.ejaltd.com bought by Rockwell in 1999

bkottaras · Mar 7, 2008

OkiePC said:
I have had problems with ferroguard and ferrotek swithes as well. The biggest problem is that one of the contacts may fail while the others continue to work, making troubleshooting difficult.

Allen Bradley makes great PLCs. I don't really care for any of their other stuff. Just my personal opinion.

I 2nd that for the Ferroguard stuff.

On the other hand, the Minotaur series has been proven bulletproof for us, either with or without time delay contacts.
We do use cadet 3's exclusively, pricing is competitive and makes laying out machines easier as it has become a standard.

Bob A. · Mar 7, 2008

I just helped to build an SIL rated E-stop system based on the AB blocks. We did the marshalling of the wiring on a terminal strip so that it would be reasonably easy to run down the strip with an ohm meter if there was a question about the condition of the e-stop equipment in the field. It has been operation for about 4 months without issue.

I was told that the safety rated PLC was a "nightmare" but I have not seen it in operation.

Best Regards,

Bob A.

_Woody_ · Mar 8, 2008

OkiePC said:
I have had problems with ferroguard and ferrotek swithes as well. The biggest problem is that one of the contacts may fail while the others continue to work, making troubleshooting difficult.QUOTE]

Have experienced the same problem - the advice from the AB distributor is not to allow the sensor & magnet to touch (even though they come with a rubber band holding them together in the box) and DON"T DROP THEM !!! - So much for industrial purpose.
Usually I prefer Pilz but have recently done a job using the new SensaGuard from AB and had no problems with contacts on these - Maybe they got it together on the new series.

Also had good history with the Minator stuff - Would be worth looking at the SmartGuard 600 if you have a more complex system. Never done one of these myself but they are exactly the same as the Omron NE1A (they come out of the same factory) and these have been good for me - just a bit pricy for small jobs

mcafone · Mar 8, 2008

Banner optical safety

Banner makes a pretty slick product that uses plastic fiber to create a "light loop" to/from a safety rated relay. No switch contacts, no wiring, just black plastic fiber and some simple plastic lenses. Check it out...

http://www.bannerengineering.com/products/category.php?cat_id=657

gosenbach · Mar 10, 2008

Thanks for the input everyone.

It should help me out

TConnolly · Mar 10, 2008

FWIW, I've started using these Schmersal non-contact safetwy switches instead:
http://products.schmersal.com/585/542/22970/details.html?lang=en
and so far I really like them.

gosenbach · Mar 10, 2008

I really like these switches
They are RF and can work in several orientations. Unfortunatly, they are not allowing me to use them here

parky · Mar 10, 2008

We too use a lot of the GD2 type however, most of our systems require high temperatures & steam caused the potting compound to creep thus causing one of the contacts on the three contact arrangement to fail.

Rockwell came to site & recommended a GD2 with the suffix X on them as these used a different compound, this worked in the main but sometimes the contacts fail to close.
This was noted if the magnet was closed slowly or sometimes very fast.
To be honest I think there is a problem with the number of switch contacts in such a small area.
We have also had contacts weld (not what you want on a safety switch.
However as there are very few alternatives to a 2 N/O & 1 N/C arrangement that are stainless we continue to use them at quite a high cost.
I did find one that has stood the time however this one has a smaller range (we would like to use it to "see" through the vessel wall of 10mm on an internal guard but it becomes a bit of a sometimes it works sometimes it don't, it works well in other applications where the distance is 5mm or so.
We have had eperience of the contacts also going high resistance (2-10k).

Allen Bradley Safety components

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