High-speed roller door provides rapid machine access

The TRD1000W powered safety roller doors operate at speeds of up to 0.8m/s to give rapid access for operators loading/unloading components at a robot cell or other potentially hazardous process. Unlike safety light curtains, roller doors safeguard against ejected materials, broken tools, welding flash and fumes, as well as providing a degree of noise attenuation. In addition, the roller door can be prevented from opening until the moving machinery has slowed to a safe speed or stopped, which means that the distance between the roller door and the hazard can be much smaller because it is not necessary to take into account the approach speed of a person. Positioning the guard closer to the process saves valuable floor space and also reduces operative walking time.

Procter Machine Guarding offers high-speed safety roller doors in a choice of standard widths from 1000 to 3200mm, with the options of clear viewing windows and/or graphics such as company logos.

Each roller door is constructed within a frame fabricated from specially designed heavy-duty aluminium extrusions, resulting in a structure that is rigid, rugged and has a high-quality appearance. Other components have been specified to ensure reliable, long-life operation of the door in harsh manufacturing environments. The roller sub-assembly comes as a self-contained cassette for easy installation and simple exchange in the event of the door sustaining damage during use. One- or two-ply fabric can be specified for the door, with a vision panel that is either clear or green for welding applications. Doors can be specified in blue, red, yellow, amber or grey, and the two-ply material is FDA-compliant for applications in the food, drink and pharmaceutical industries. Hard-wearing, low-friction curtain guides benefit from an anti-push-through design to retain the edges of the roller door at all times.

Roller door power, control and safety

Power for the roller door is provided by a motor with an integral inverter drive and a manual override for operating the door in the event of a power failure. A separate control box incorporates buttons to raise and lower the door, an emergency stop pushbutton, a screen giving access to full diagnostics, and a non-resettable cycle counter. From this panel the opening position can be programmed, speed, acceleration and deceleration can be set, and the control software can be updated.

These safety roller doors comply with the requirements of BS EN 12453:2001 (Industrial, commercial and garage doors and gates. Safety in use of power operated doors. Requirements) and BS EN 13241-1:2003+A1:2011 (Industrial, commercial and garage doors and gates. Product standard. Products without fire resistance or smoke control characteristics).

Safety features on the doors include an anti-fall-back device within the gearbox, a non-contact 'door closed sensor' and a wireless safe edge on the bottom of the door that is monitored by the control panel; if an obstruction is detected while the door is closing, the controller immediately stops and reverses the door movement.

Jeremy Procter, the Managing Director of Procter Machine Guarding, comments: "We recently added the Talos Safety Systems aluminium guarding system to our portfolio of standard, modular and bespoke perimeter and close-fit machine guards. While the safety roller door is a Talos product, we can readily incorporate it within other perimeter guarding such as the cost-effective Satech system that we offer. We could also retrofit it to manufacturing companies' existing perimeter guards, as we have the in-house capability to design, manufacture and install any bespoke components need to interface between the roller door and the existing guards."

Follow the link for more information about the high-speed roller door from Procter Machine Guarding.