The situation
The safety mats at Tower Automotive’s Milwaukee Ranger frame plant were a high maintenance item in a welding environment and were cutting into productivity. Safety mats—the industrial-scale cousins of the pressure-sensitive mats used to open grocery store doors—were being used to safeguard automation when a worker was in the area, say to load parts or weld.

The decision to use PLS Scanners
Tower Automotive decided to employ alternate safety technology on the latest Ranger Line, built in 1997. (It continues to use safety mats to protect some smaller, less rugged areas.) The company considered a variety of options to meet its control reliability requirements. Among the possible solutions were light curtains, interlocked guarding, mechanical barriers, and proximity laser scanners (PLS scanners).

For the full article, watch for the September issue of IEN or go to WWW.ienonline.com.