>> With sales of over EUR 9 bn. and more than 68,000 employees at almost
130 production sites in 26 countries, Valéo is one of the leaders in the automotive supplier market. The product programme – split into ten application-specific divisions – enjoys a hightech reputation. Correspondingly, production at the various sites not only exploits the latest production technologies, but also utilises safety technology of the highest standards.

The machines protected with the S 3000 at Valéo require the manual insertion and removal of workpieces. “This immediately ruled out a mechanical protective system”, reports Thierry Pouchol of SICK France, who provided support for the project. The S 3000 non-contact safety laser scanner simultaneously safeguards the work area and raises machine performance.

Response time: 60 ms, resolution: 30 mm, protective field height: about 2 m, with 450 mm distance to the hazardous machine area – these are the facts of the application at Valéo. In practice, this task was only soluble because the
S 3000 had the necessary auxiliary “contour as reference” function. Without this it would have been impossible to gain certification for vertical use in compliance with EN 61496-3. The scanner exploits this function to reliably detect when a protective field edge, in this case the floor of the hall, changes its relative position to the scanner. This reliably detects any mechanical misalignment of the scanner, and thus any unguarded access to the hazardous area. The device immediately switches off the protected plant if the actual contour deviates from the reference contour because of any realignment of the sensor in its supporting bracket. Thus the S 3000 offers Valéo and other users a currently unique, real lead in vertical machine protection.