Red for on or green for on

[marcoaar]

hello kevin k,
can you send me a copy off this european standard,
thank you.
marco.

 

[CaseyK]

Had to think long and hard on this one. I came from the power generation industry. Finally decided, RED is shut down, off, broke,, etc. Green is on, GOing, ready to GO.

Hey a POLL!

Great Idea!

There should be more of them!

regards to all.....kc

 

[CT782]

Several years ago I worked in a rolling mill. The Electrical Engineer had converted all MCC lens colors to RED=RUNNING, and GREEN=OFF/SAFE. This was the first time I had ever seen it done this way. I have been in 35+ plants either as an employee or contractor (usually contractor), and not seen this color scheme used anywhere else.

I think we are conditioned to look for RED as 'Warning', 'Stop', 'Danger'. In traffic RED=STOP. Fire Engine and Ambulance warning lights are typically RED, and when they're on, it doesn't mean all is well and there's NOT an emergency. In hospitals and institutional facilities, a CODE RED is a fire or other dangerous condition. Even the UV hazard scale (sun exposure)moves toward RED as the extreme on the 'bad' side.

When I see red lights, I think there is a problem or something is off. Alot of 'canned' motor starters come with a black START button and a red STOP button.

Anyway, I had a few minutes and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

Best regards,

 

[Jimmie_Ohio]

I wish someone would come out with a standard, if you want bizzare try my current place.

There is a "standard" in industry:

1) Let everyone design it to his or her own "standards".
2) Then let someone get hurt, maimed or killed because they don't or can't tell if the lights tell them it's safe or not.
3) After the lawyers get involved, build a heavily guarded cell system around the entire process complete with light curtains, safety relays, lockout systems, horns, etc., etc. (doubling or tripling the design time and cost of the control system).

Then, finally:

4) Visit this site often to see the latest in how to implement "safe" systems utilizing light curtains, safety relays, lockout systems, horns, etc.

 

[dale1627]

Taken from ANSI B65.1-1995 Safety Standard- Printing Press Systems, para. 10.1.1 Personnel Warning Lights:
"Red and green lights shall be used to indicate the ready/running and safe conditions. The color red indicates a ready or running condition. The color green indicates a safe condition. Ready and safe lights shall be located clearly in view from any operator control station and before entering the press frames. These personnel warning lights shall be distinctive from any machine status lights.
In a vertical orientation, the red personnel warning light should be above the green personnel warning light. In a horizontal orientation, the red personnel warning light should be to the left of the green personnel warning light."

I relate it to that if you see a red light, do not enter. If you see a green light, go ahead.

Dale

 

[NetMan]

... well for what it's worth. On our control panels, we use:
GREEN Start buttons and Running indicators (ie ... motor running)
RED Stop and E-Stop buttons and Fault indicators (ie ... OL tripped)
AMBER/YELLOW Warning indicators (ie ... hopper is full)
BLUE Control Power ON indicators
WHITE Auto buttons and indicators

However ... if a machine requires any kind of operator / employee warning when the machine is running, we put up BIG RED STROBES, BEACONS or FLASHERS in areas where there is danger of machine movement. Such as a robot cell or automated crane. Not to be confused with the control panel, PB's or HMI, colors.
- Tony

 

[Money4Nothing]

Its less important which color you use, and its more important that everone who must operate with the machinery understands what the colors mean.

I rarely have a light without a lable informing what it means.

In motor control centers Red means "Run", Green means "Stopped, power available". On single-lamp Motor controls, Red means "Run". On dual-lamp controls, usually Green means "Run" and Red means "Stop", but lables must identify the purpose.

As a matter of fact, IEC regulations for HMI stipulates that the state of a process cannot be indicated by color alone, but by another form of display.

$

 

[plchacker]

I always ask, and never work on anything without a lock/tag. I've been around both standards. True enough red/running is a bit freaky, but easy enough once I know the mill standard. All of the power distrubution equipment I have been around had red for energized, green for safe. I'd have to double check before racking out a breaker with a red lamp.

On the production floor, it tends to be green/running and red/stopped.

 

[Gerry M]

monkeyhead has it right for the US.

The NFPA 79 states the colors as green=normal, red=emergency or faulted for a process or equipment state. For safety of persons: red=danger, green=safe.

 

[geniusintraining]

I relate it to that if you see a red light, do not enter. If you see a green light, go ahead.

Dale

Dale, I worked for several large printing companies...that is not the standard that I remember, on the Miehle's and Roland's green was the run and red was for stop, the ind lights as well...

its been a few years, so it may be different.

 

[dale1627]

I work for a very large print company, not Quebecor or RR Donnelley but both of those companies had members on the team that worked out the ANSI standard that was adopted. If I remember correctly, KBA, Komori, and Miehle also were a part of it. I may be wrong, but I had always understood that OSHA often uses the applicable ANSI standards in their inspections. However, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to use the red=running and green=safe approach due to the prevelance of green start PB's and red stop PB's. I just have to constantly remind myself.

Dale

 

[geniusintraining]

I guess that goes to show that even if there is a standard, that does not mean that anyone is going to take advantage of it and actually use it.

I’m glad that I somewhat make the specs for here...I do remember the speed of the printing industry, one slip...or the light was green...that’s a big opps and I did see several of them.

 

[Lancie1]

However, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to use the red=running and green=safe approach due to the prevelance of green start PB's and red stop PB's.

Way back then, it was no problem at all. We used illuminated pushbuttons. The red unlit button was pushed to start a motor (or to "make it dangerous and unsafe"). Once started, the red light turned on, the universal sign indicating "danger" since the first fire alarm was made. To stop, press the green unlit button to "make it safe again". Once stopped, the green light came on. Simple, and it was according to the NEMA standard of the time.

Also those "red stop PBs" are not red stop buttons --they are merely red buttons that can be used for a variety of functions, one of which is "START". For awhile during the transition years (that many of you are too young to remember) between "Red is Dangerous" and "Green is Go", all button vendors were supplying 4 or 5 color caps for every button. You could take your pick of colors.

In time, if you live long enough, you will come to see that it is all relative. Colors do not come with a built-in instruction manual. Any color can mean anything. It is all in the eye of the beholder...

Thinking about this some more, in the early factories, "running" was the abnormal condition, while off or deenergized was the normal position for most of the electrical machinery, which only ran a few minutes in between the manual labor tasks. In today's factories, there is no time for downtime. The abnormal condition is off, and the normal is "running" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so it is only natural that green , the safe color, becomes the new normal for run. The factory is only safe now if everything is running full speed! It would be unsettling to most nowdays to see a panel full of red lights.

 

[stevez]

IEC standard

The international standard IEC 62061 defines the following colours to represent these traffic light style messages:

RED - urgent (immediate action required)
YELLOW/ORANGE - anomaly (checking or intervention required)
GREEN - normal condition
BLUE - obligatory action required
WHITE - monitoring

 

[Togadude]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think its only logical to put the operator in a first person point of view rather than a third.

Where I work, the older machines were green...running, red....fault. Then we got some machines that were built to our specs. and guess what???? THEY CHANGED IT ON US!!! HOW DARE THEY!!!!!!

Initally, the change was unwelcome (as most changes are) but since, all of the older machines have been converted to our standard......... green...safe, red unsafe.

I didnt like the change at first, but have grown to like it.