Safety curtains, an essential need for production plants

The KEYENCE GL-R Series of safety light curtains offers a robust solution for optimal levels of safety and is an essential for all production plants.

Continental Corporation, a leading firm in the manufacturing of electronic car components, has always made extensive use of these safety devices in its plants, especially in areas where moving components could injure operators. Continental chose KEYENCE safety light curtains as they offer cutting-edge design features, easy installation, and most importantly, the highest levels of certainty and safety.

Cross-border standardization
Continental Corporation´s need to ensure the safety of its workers is of paramount importance since 90 to 95 percent of its workstations include machines that pose an injury risk to operators, making safety light curtains a must. They have long utilized KEYENCE’s safety light curtain product portfolio to meet their safety needs. Having seen how effective KEYENCE safety light curtains are, Continental met with KEYENCE representatives in China for more information. "They were given the task of finding the best option for our needs. This started a process of standardization. After trying out the different alternatives KEYENCE offers, we opted for the GL-R Series, which is more compact and practical," Continental explains.

The GL-R Series features a robust design with a thick, metal housing and a recessed face to resist damage and prevent downtime. It also features the narrowest exposed lens surface in the industry. These curtains have no unprotected zones, so 100% of the curtain is utilized, providing shorter curtain options vs. conventional models for equal amounts of protection height. This 100% utilization of the curtain and extremely durable design, makes KEYENCE’s GL-R Series a time and money saver.

Another advantage of the GL-R Series is its easy installation and connection between the curtains and the safety relays. According to Continental: “The use of a connector style cable makes the installation process much easier compared with other brands.  In our experience, when you have a cable with bare leads, it takes a long time to wire each lead to a certain point on the relay."

This seamless and easy connection between the curtains and safety relays not only saves time, but also provides certainty as it eliminates the possibility of a wiring issue. “Once the curtain is connected to the relay, connections remain secure and have proven to be reliable,” Continental's specialists elaborate.

Continental uses these curtains to ensure safety in multiple plants around the world. The GL-R Series protects operators from injury, which could happen if they were hit by moving components inside the machine.

"One example of where they are particularly useful is the front of the workstation, where the operator loads the material processed by the machine. This prevents the system from producing certain alarms and avoids having to halt a process due to an obstruction.”

Continental’s success with these curtains points to KEYENCE’s ability to add value to its products. On the GL-R Series, value is added with the robust design and 100% utilization of the curtain, allowing it to achieve optimal levels of safety and stand out as an essential for all production plants. KEYENCE works globally to provide added-value solutions in factory automation with products that have simple installation and usage, extreme durability, and reliable operation at the core of their design.

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