One aspect of robotic safety that is often overlooked, according to Leo Petrokonis, business development manager for the packaging industry at Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com): Machine builders are faced with the challenge of trying to adhere to packaging safety standards from Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI, www.pmmi.org) and robotics safety standards from the Robotic Industries Association (RIA, www.robotics.org) when trying to implement robotics into their packaging machines and lines.
“Their main challenge becomes answering the question: ‘Do I call this machine a packaging machine or a robotic machine?’ when trying to determine which standard to adhere to,” says Petrokonis.
Packaging and robotics safety standards need to have more synergy, says Petrokonis. “We’ll likely see PMMI adopting some best practices from RIA and vice-versa when it comes to safety standards in the future. At the very least, standards organizations will likely begin identifying which safety standards machine builders should follow.”
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