Safety and Standards
Stop Categories 0, 1 and 2: What Each One Does
Category 0 removes drive power immediately and the arm coasts to a halt. Category 1 decelerates under control, then removes power. Category...
Section 09
Safety and Standards
The clauses, distances and deadlines that decide whether a cell may be switched on.
Safety and Standards
EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230: Deadlines and Duties
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies to machinery placed on the European market from 20 January 2027. Directive 2006/42/EC applies until 19...
Safety and Standards
How Dangerous Are Industrial Robots? The Numbers
Rare, and concentrated in one situation. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recorded 61 robot-related deaths...
Safety and Standards
ISO 10218:2025: What Changed for Robot Cells
Both parts of ISO 10218 were published in February 2025, the first full revision since 2011. Four changes matter in practice: the content...
Safety and Standards
ISO 13482: Safety for Personal Care Robots
ISO 13482 is the only published standard that addresses robots operating freely among people rather than inside a defined workspace. It...
Safety and Standards
Performance Level vs SIL: Which One Applies to Your Robot
Both frameworks answer the same question: how reliable must this safety function be. ISO 13849-1 expresses the answer as a performance...
Safety and Standards
Who CE-Marks a Robot Cell?
Whoever puts the complete cell into service. A robot is supplied as partly completed machinery with a declaration of incorporation, not a...
Safety and Standards
Safety Distances: How Far Must the Fence Be?
Two calculations, not one. For a physical barrier, the distance comes from reach tables in ISO 13857: how far a person can reach over,...
Safety and Standards
Robot Cybersecurity: What IEC 62443 Requires
Security became a safety requirement in 2025, when the revised ISO 10218 added cybersecurity requirements and the EU Machinery Regulation...
Safety and Standards
Reduced Speed: Where the 250 mm/s Limit Comes From
The 250 mm/s limit applies to the tool centre point in manual reduced speed mode, the condition in which a person is inside the safeguarded...