Increased process reliability through simplified access protection with the C4000 Palletizer Advanced safety light curtain 

The C4000 Palletizer Advanced safety light curtain is part of SICK’s Entry/Exit portfolio, whose various sensor and application approaches ensure safety-oriented monitoring of automated material flow systems. In safety terms, this electro-sensitive protective equipment consisting of a transmitter and receiver meets the demands of Performance Level “e” according to EN ISO 13849 and SIL3 in line with IEC 61508. Two special aspects of the C4000 Palletizer Advanced merit particular attention for use in handling and warehousing systems: the possibility of human-material differentiation without supplementary muting components, and the tolerance of object detection in a variety of detection situations, e.g. differing pallet loads, and strapping bands or bits of foil projecting into the monitored field.

Pattern detection as a functional principle

Light curtains detect objects when they interrupt one or more light beams. Unlike conventional systems, the C4000 Palletizer Advanced also uses the positions and number of interrupted beams for pattern detection by means of its self-learning, dynamic blanking function. As a result, this patented process allows detection and monitoring of shapes and sizes by means of the safety-oriented querying of individual light beams. With horizontal installation it is possible, for example, to detect the width and shape of a pallet. This permits reliable differentiation between a person and, for example, an anticipated pallet for processing.

Horizontal Entry-Exit: muting-free approach saves money

In horizontal use, the C4000 Palletizer Advanced offers enormous savings potentials in the implementation of material flow locks entering or leaving hazardous areas. Why? The system requires no supplementary muting sensors, indicator lamps, fences or doors for muting the safety function thanks to its principle of self-learning pattern detection. This makes the C4000 Palletizer Advanced safe light curtain particularly economical to purchase and install. Compared to conventional muting solutions, the pattern-related approach allows cost savings of up to 40% during planning, installation and operation. In addition, the frequency of device failures falls in proportion to the reduction of components – plant availability therefore rises considerably.

During operation, the system detects and automatically accepts different types of load carriers, e.g. pallets, half-pallets, grid boxes or goods, on the basis of the particular foot geometry and foot separations. Users do not need to make any adjustments or parameter changes nor, unlike with muting sensors, is appropriate alignment and adaptation of signals necessary. Another advantage: human-material differentiation using pattern detection requires considerably less space than most muting stations because the protective field is not muted and can therefore be used for parking – a decisive argument for many factories with limited machine space.

Detection tolerance improves plant availability

Intralogistical practice shows that even the same type of load carrier can vary considerably. This is particularly the case for pallets – sometimes a foot is missing, sometimes something is hanging from the pallet. For this reason, the detection possibilities of the new C4000 Palletizer Advanced have been further improved thanks to the Multiscan process and reduced resolution. With the help of this special querying and evaluation algorithm, the safe light curtain keeps the taught-in pallet pattern firmly in sight even with defective pallets with projecting wood splinters or strapping bands, or bits of foil hanging down. Unlike conventional light curtains, with the C4000 Palletizer Advanced such interfering factors no longer lead to uncontrolled responses by the safety equipment and unnecessary interruption of the automatic transport – with positive effects on the throughput rate and availability of the intralogistical material flow system.

Initial cost savings

Thanks to the possibility of monitoring several roller conveyors at a time, you initially save the cost of protecting individual stations. Whereby it is only necessary to ensure that one belt is loaded after the other. Thanks to flexible synchronisation (communication between transmitter and receiver takes place on any desired beams), pallets can also simultaneously cover the start and the end of the protective field, for maximum flexibility in the selection of protective field lengths.

Logical solution for intralogistical equipment

Transfer vehicles, pallet transport systems, rotary tables or strapping machines are just as likely to be found in a logistics centre as picking personnel, fork-lift drivers or maintenance staff. With the C4000 Palletizer Advanced access protection system, it is now possible to reliably detect a wide variety of load carriers, to unfailingly differentiate them from persons, and thus further improve safety at work as well as plant performance.