Rockwell Automation Inc. visited our offices yesterday and talked about how to tie safety in with standard automation systems. A critical point: safety is a main business driver. Why? Because an older safety system might completely shut down a machine during a safety incidence, whereas newer systems don't shut everything off. A lot of components ...

The April 24 Machine Design column Berke on Safety asks you to come up with problems one might encounter when using hair dryers in your house for an interactive example of a Preliminary Hazard Analysis. So go read his article if you haven't yet and then post your ideas and thoughts to his request here as a reply to this ...