audible horns

I am wondering if any one has any experience on using audible horns, with multiple type of sound (around 10). I am looking for a horn that can be connected to a PLC and it can control the sounds thru digital outputs from the PLC.

Thanks for your help

Allen Bradley has a selection of such horns.

Thanks.
I seen those before, but what i got of it you can only selected 3 of the sounds i need it to have the option of using all 10 sounds.

I'm guessing that you want to use a different sound for different alarm conditions. I would caution that this probably looks better on paper than it will work in the field. I suspect that most of your operators are not going to remember which sound is for which alarm condition - in a couple of weeks you'll be the only one that can distinguish them, and even you won't care anymore.

Regardless, I always put a breaker, fuse, or other disconnect on any alarm horn ciruit so I can disable the darn thing while I'm testing the system. This feature has been in every panel I've designed since the SECOND one.

We use a type that can output 2 different sounds from 2 inputs.
I think that 2 different sounds can be acceptable, but we only use 1 sound though.
It is called A105N from www.e2s.com

N.B. we have a "horn enable" button in our HMI. When there is an operator in front of the HMI, then there is no need for an audible alarm. The horn being active is an exception for when he leaves the control room.

The Japanese are noted around here for their use of different sounds for the alarms. They love song melodies so I can walk out on the floor and hear - Rocky, Mary had a little Lamb, and the very serious - Happy Birthday when we installed the machines.

This is the style that they use:
http://www.patlite.com/pdf/TrifoldFlyer169.pdf


After a couple of weeks, we now have only 2 alarm sounds.


I still get a little tense when I hear Happy Birthday though.

I agree that after installing that type of horn we will go down to 1 sound but operation what that and my job is for them to get what they want. Thanks for your help guys.

I have always dreamt about making a voice based alarm or startup warning system.
Either with a Stephen Hawkin style computer voice, or a nice female voice.
The temptation to make funny messages will be irresistible.

See link below ( scroll down) Multi-tone horns.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#horn-alarms/=by10o0

JesperMP said:

I have always dreamt about making a voice based alarm or startup warning system.
Either with a Stephen Hawkin style computer voice, or a nice female voice.
The temptation to make funny messages will be irresistible.

Click to expand...

I am sure that I can remember Mitsubishi making a card for the A-Series PLC's which could do exactly that. I wonder if anybody on this site ever used one.

This thread is pretty far down, but just in case...

in the US - Federal Signal makes a bunch of noise-making devices. Nominally is a little box, with a bunch of connections (for dry-contact switches) that when you close your contacts, it makes a sound. Their boxes that do this can store up to 10 or 16 sounds. Their website has a list of prerecorded sounds, or you can have their studio actors record voice messages for you (even in other languages)...OR you can send them an MP3 and they'll burn it to a chip for you.
FS's stuff isn't plant-floor ready (you'll need a box) but it is intended for industrial use.

potentially unlike some of the theatre audio gear out there. Contact your local theatre audio place (local yellow pages)- they'd LOVE to take your money for a job like this.

GE/Edwards also makes stuff like Federal signal.

Both also sell a line of speakers, single tone buzzer, air horns and the like for anything from the office-pretty to Class II Div 1 explosive places.

I dont work for either, but just had both of them in quoteing an emergency alert system for my plant, the moneyhandlers went with a much simpler system.

I also agree on the # of messages - the plant down the road started out with 15 messages for different situations, and got sick of all the testing/listening- so they narrowed it to 4 sounds - much easier for brain-tired operators, noob contractors and ignorant executives to understand =)

-John

I know its an old thread, but my philosopy on horns is that they should be like a whistler in a crowd... You're in the midst of a big noisy crowd when you hear someone whistle. Everyone looks. You see your friend waving at you to get your attention. Everyone else doesn't know him so they go back to whatever they were doing while you make you way over to your friend. Audible horns on the factory floor are the same way. Its an alert, then you look for another signal - if it is yours you take action. If it is not then you go back to your task. It should not be annoying or complex. Different machines can have different kinds of horns, but for each horn the only information conveyed by the sound is "Look here!"

Offshore we use Gaitronics. Our current setup does support 10 horns, we use one for process. There are three emergency horns, for ABANDON, FIRE, and GENERAL. We also have GAS and ESD. I don't think ESD works. The reaction for the three emergency horns is the same, get thee heck out.

It's operator-geared, but again, we could have done with less. The emergency ones are required, as is the process. We could group the other ones in there, but we have them. One of the Gaitronics options is voice alarms, but we aren't using that one. BTW, high $.

How many "alarm messages" do you need to warn the operator? If it's only a few, use a single tone horn and "morse code" the output with the PLC: a short burst of 1 second could be a basic warning and then pause 2 second to give an additional code: a 2 second long burst means that the conveyer is stopped, two shorts means the operator needs to wake up and do something he should have already done, etc, a 2 second initial burst is for a more elevated issue and so on. We have this for our multiplant fire alarm system and within 5 second of it beginning, you know whether it's in the building you are in, and in another 5 seconds you know the general area where in the building the the "fire" is located.

As Tom stated in the last post, if you are not on the Fire Response Team, you are headed for your appointed assembly area but this also gets the response team to head for the hot spot more quickly.