Posted By Bryan Owen
I've been asked to find out what the minimim safe distances are for siting photo-electric light curtains from dangerous parts of machinery.

I've tried to find the information on the web, and had no luck. I can't even see the old HSE guidance note PM41 on this matter.

Could someone please help me out?

If you have any info please e-mail me at

bryanmusashi@netscapeonline.co.uk

Thanks for your help

Posted By Jim Walker
One of the major light guard companies, I think they sell their products as "guardmaster" do some very nice guidance documents, including a CD-rom. I can't lay my hands on them at the moment.
I'll watch this thread and if no-one else sends advice I'll dig out what I have.

There are some quite specific tests on lightguards on power presses, so it a slightly more complicated issue than a general RA.

What machinery are you guarding?

Posted By Bryan Owen
Thanks for the information.

For those who want more information, visit the Guardmaster web site, and look under their documentation page.

There is a document (SB2 - Safety Guarding 2 I think). The formula for this is given in section 7.

Let me also add that I don't think a general assessment would help me here. We already have general assessments in place. But while we have to keep our employees safe, we also have to maintain minimum production cycle times. Now I can get the correct distance, rather than judge it by trail and (god forbid) error, which is what I would have to have done by a general assessment.