Technology Prompts New Plastics Machinery Safety Standards

The Plastics Industry Trade Association (SPI) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have published two revised and approved American National Standards on plastics machinery safety. The standards aim at sheet plastics machinery and robots integrated with plastic injection molding. SIP noted that both standards represent "significant and substantive changes from the previous editions."

The new standards include:

ANSI/SPI B151.20 -- 2013 Safety Requirements for Plastics Sheet Production Machinery. This standard specifies the requirements for the manufacture, care, and use of plastics sheet production machinery to minimize hazards to personnel associated with machine activity.

ANSI/SPI B151.27 -- 2013 Safety Requirements for the Integration of Robots with Injection Molding Machines. This standard addresses the integration, care, and use of robots used with injection molding machines to minimize hazards to personnel associated with robot and machine activity. Complicated by the variety and sizes of machines and robots manufactured, the standard approaches the problem of integration safety from three different areas: to eliminate recognized hazards by design criteria, establish standard approaches to design, and safeguard the point of operation to protect the operator from recognized hazards.

The standards update machine safety regarding sheet production machinery and integrating robots with injection molding machines. The biggest change is the inclusion of risk assessment. "The most significant addition is the incorporation of risk assessment and risk reduction principles in the design and construction, as well as user sections of the standard," Dave Felinski, standards program coordinator at SPI, told Design News.

Felinski said the new standards are not expected to cause disruptions as they're adopted:

The standards were revised to reflect changes in technology and provide additional explanatory materials, illustrations, and definitions to clarify the standards. Felinski noted that ANSI procedures require standards developing organizations to review their standards every five years, and either revise them, reaffirm them, or withdraw them. "The writing committee believed there was sufficient impetus to revise the documents at this time," Felinski told us.

To order the revised standards or any of the SPI/ANSI plastics machinery safety standards, visit the Plastics E-Store or the Standards Store.

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