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LIGHT CURTAIN SYSTEM IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY
Part of the Imperial Tobacco Group, Rizla is a household name and its products are sold worldwide. The special nature of its manufacturing operations means that in most cases, Rizla develops its own machines. At the company's Pontypridd factory in South Wales, for example, there are a number of specialist packaging machines which are used for form fill and sealing applications. Initially these machines were supplied with fixed guarding systems. However, these proved to be frustrating for the machine operators, as corrections in the event of misfeeds involved the lengthy process of removing the guard. In addition, maintenance was difficult as the guards had to be removed to allow access to the machines. The problems experienced by Rizla with fixed guarding are not unusual. Indeed they occur more frequently in today's highly pressurised environment for manufacturing, where higher levels of safety must be balanced against the demands of competitiveness. Conformation of this comes from recent research, which shows that the best choice of protective measures is a device or system that combines maximum levels of safety provision with minimum hindrance to normal machine operation. If these objectives are not achieved i.e. the safety system is difficult to use, then it is more likely to be bypassed, an occurrence that has been shown to be one of the most common pre-conditions for an industrial accident. In an effort to identify a system which would provide the correct mix of safety, production efficiency and operator convenience, Rizla's Engineering Manager at Pontypridd, Byron Davies, called in safety equipment specialists, EJA Ltd, a company which offers one of the widest ranges of machinery safety equipment available with its well known Guardmaster and Nelsa brands. Working in close partnership, engineers from EJA and Rizla examined the possibilities for replacing the fixed guard systems. A detailed risk assessment was also undertaken to determine the nature of the hazards posed by the machines. This provided the indication that a light curtain system could be used to eliminate the hazards identified. Subsequently, the fixed guarding system on the first of the machines was removed and replaced with a Nelsa multi-beam light curtain system, which allows operators 100% access to the machine while providing point-of-operation guarding. With this system, full visibility and accessibility to the machine work area is always maintained and any downtime resulting from the product jamming or misfeeding is minimised. Maintenance is also simpler and quicker as it is no longer necessary to set-up or remove mechanical safety barriers. The success of the prototype application has led to the progressive adoption of the Nelsa light curtain system across the remaining machines at the Pontypridd plant. Commenting upon the benefits provided by the new system, Byron Davies said: 'We were fully aware from the outset of this project that by finding an answer to the guarding problem we could also improve our production. The difficulty was finding a balance between the two. The safety system based upon the Nelsa light curtains achieves that balance. It enables us to maintain high levels of safety provision while being more flexible and productive in the way we operate our machines'.
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