Industry safety standards ANSI RIA 15.06

[motodude]

Can somebody enlighten me on the difference in safety standards in our industry?
People always like to talk the numbers but to me it's still a grey area.
What is ANSI RIA 15.06 and how does it compare to ISO 10218?  Is this accepted globally?
What, if any are the robotic standards in Asia? (mainly China).
What does Europe use?

Any comments are appreciated.
TIA

[Jim C]

This one is hard to nail down. In the USA, OSHA is responsible for industrial safety. They have no regulations on robot safety, but they expect you to use "best practices". This used to mean ANSI \ RIA 15-06, which was a set of guidelines developed by the Robotics Industries of America and adopted by ANSI. A couple of years ago ISO, international standards organization, released ISO 10218 part 1, robot safety guidelines for robot manufacturers. They should be releasing 10218 part 2 safety guidelines for robot users shortly. ANSI has adopted 10218-1 and is expected to adopt 10218-2 when it is released. At the moment, OSHA expects you to use both. The RIA did release a document discussing the differences.

The purpose of ISO 10218 was develop a uniform set of safety guidelines. In the past the USA has RIA 15-06, the EU had EN 954, Canada had a CSA safety standard, Japan had another set and so on. We are waiting to see how many countries adopt the ISO standard.

[motodude]

Thanks Jim.

Does anybody know what EU is using today?  EN594? 

[Robotter]

Is there some place where we can find the transcripts of these guidelines?
Would love to understand a step deeper than just the application part of the robots..

[Jim C]

Both ANSI and ISO have online stores where you can buy copies of their standards. I wish they would release them free of charge, but instead they copyright them and charge for them. In almost all cases, a standard will reference other standards you then need to purchase.

[Robotter]

Thanks Jim for the response. it is a pity that even the safety guideline come at a cost! 

[jax.]

The UK currently uses, to the best of my knowledge,: BS EN ISO 10218-1:2006 and its supplimentry additions.

In line with the UK govenments standard practice, since the romans left, you have to buy this standard from HM Stationary office or its recognised distributers.