Safety Fence and Light Curtain Wiring

    Can someone explain the Difference between the EEs, EAS, EGS, and SD on the estop board for an R30ia controller?

    I have a system that is going to have a safety fence door interlock. I am thinking this should be wired into the EAS (Fence) board. My question is do I choose the controlled stop, powered off stop from the teach pendant or is it a matter of how the device is wired in? I am wanting the robot to stop once the gate is opened. Then I want it to have to be restarted from the controller when it is closed again.

    I am also adding a light curtain to the system. When the light curtain is broken I would like the program to HOLD when the light curtain is broken. And then once the light curtain is no longer block and the reset button is pressed I would like the robot to continue on with the program automatically. Should the light curtain still be wired into the EAS board.

    We do have the DCS software that came with the robot, but we have not gotten far enough with our programming to start messing with it. We bought the robot used. It is a R2000ib with the R30ia controller. This is our first attempt at using a Fanuc robot so we are still pretty green with it.

    How do I wire the door interlock and light curtain both to the controller?

    I think I can jump into the reset and cycle start buttons and run auxiliary push buttons closer to the light curtain. That would eliminate the need to walk to the robot controller for reset and cycle start. And would also eliminate the need for a plc if we just have the person pressing both buttons.

    Now onto my next problem.

    The way I am understanding is that I need two outputs from my safety relay for the door in EAS 1-11 and EAS 2-21 since they both need to activate / deactivate close in timing. So I take two separate outputs from my safety relay and run into those connections. (2 channel, 3NO safety outputs, 1 NC safety output) But then I am not left with any EAS connections for the light curtain to go into? I assume I also need 2 outputs from my light curtain for that to work correctly as well? Can I use the EGS as the same thing as the EAS? are the basically the same thing?

    1. You really need to do a hazard assessment to verify what you are planning is adequate.

    2. If you don't have a PLC then the operator can reset and restart using the buttons on the front of the control panel, or you could use BG Logic to act as your PLC.

    3. You must wire all safety devices to monitored relays and then if all conditions are safe, accurate a pair of safety relays. 1 safety relay for each pair of EAS terminals.

    4. If the last point above doesn't make sense, I strongly suggest you consult a qualified electrical designer.

    I guess where I am not understanding is how the EAS is working.

    I am planning to have two separate relays, one for the door interlock and one for the light curtain. Where I am losing my understanding is with both contacts of the EAS.

    I tried yesterday to pull the jumper on EAS 1-11 to see how the robot would react and what all we would need to do to reset it. EAS 12-21 was still jumpered. All of the contacts on that block are jumpered at the moment, that is how the controller came to us. After further forum searching my current understanding is that a fault occurs if EAS 1-11 and 12-21 are not switched at the same time. .

    So if I had my door connected to EAS1-11 and light curtain connected to EAS 12-21. If my light curtain was not broken, but my door was open how is that any different that having the jumper pulled on EAS 1-11 and the jumper still in 12-21? Wouldn't that give me the same fault on the fence circuit as I had when I pulled one of the jumpers mimicing a door opening, leaving the other jumper in mimicing that the light curtain is not broken?

    I have a call into our local integrator, now I am just trying to understand how this works for my own sake.

    Quote from zrehlander

    I guess where I am not understanding is how the EAS is working.

    I am planning to have two separate relays, one for the door interlock and one for the light curtain. Where I am losing my understanding is with both contacts of the EAS.

    I tried yesterday to pull the jumper on EAS 1-11 to see how the robot would react and what all we would need to do to reset it. EAS 12-21 was still jumpered. All of the contacts on that block are jumpered at the moment, that is how the controller came to us. After further forum searching my current understanding is that a fault occurs if EAS 1-11 and 12-21 are not switched at the same time. .

    So if I had my door connected to EAS1-11 and light curtain connected to EAS 12-21. If my light curtain was not broken, but my door was open how is that any different that having the jumper pulled on EAS 1-11 and the jumper still in 12-21? Wouldn't that give me the same fault on the fence circuit as I had when I pulled one of the jumpers mimicing a door opening, leaving the other jumper in mimicing that the light curtain is not broken?

    I have a call into our local integrator, now I am just trying to understand how this works for my own sake.

    You can't do it this way. EAS is dual channel safety input. You need to wire it up in next way (see attachment).

    Yes, you will have a single channel fault if you drop one of the chains, and not the other. They must change state at the same time. End stop. You can't run each chain off seperate devices.

    Typically when hard wiring you would run both sides of the chain through safety relays. You would have 1 relay per channel per device. So in your case, 4 relays.

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    I agree with HawkME and Nation and scotty

    You should consult an electrician/integrator as the dedicated safety circuits (external emergency stop and safety fence) are referred to as dual channel.

    FYI:

    The attached image is the basic schematic.

    You can see here, either external emergency stop or fence circuits consists of 2 circuits each.

    You can also see, each channel is NC and becomes NO by way of mechanical/forced disconnect.

    Emergency Stop:

    Channel 1 EES1 - EES11

    Channel 2 EES2 - EES21

    Fence:

    Channel 1 EAS1 - EAS11

    Channel 2 EAS2 - EEA21

    Both emergency stop and fence are usually referred to as dual channel inputs.

    Emergency stop channel 1 and 2 are constantly monitored.

    Fence channel 1 and 2 as standard are monitored in Auto, but not T1 or T2 (for teaching/manual).

    Emergency Stop and Fence evaluation:

    - Both channels are evaluated.

    - Both Channel 1 and 2 must be switched simultaneously.

    - Both Channels ON at the same time = Safety circuit/chain is established and normal operation.

    - Both Channels OFF at the same time = Safety circuit/chain has been broken and renders safe.

    - Either Channel in different state (OR) = Safety circuit/chain failure, results in error and renders safe.

    Think of:

    - EAS1 is the Channel 1 output from controller to field.

    - EAS11 is the Channel 1 return from field to controller.

    - EAS2 is the Channel 2 output from controller to field.

    - EAS21 is the Channel 2 return from field to controller.

    *** do not mix any channel 1 or channel 2 circuits with each other ***

    I have a safety circuit test box I use for site training and testing of robot external emergency stop and safety fence circuits, using estop buttons for the dual channel forced switching and inline with them, individual circuit switches to test the monitoring circuits.

    Referring to your picture of your testing buttons, you say do not mix any channel 1 or channel 2 but your picture is showing both Ch1 and Ch2 on each button. So are both channel 1 24V and both channel 2 0V? or are you saying not to pair channel 1 with channel 1 or channel 2 with channel 2

    Quote from JordanOlsen

    Referring to your picture of your testing buttons, you say do not mix any channel 1 or channel 2 but your picture is showing both Ch1 and Ch2 on each button. So are both channel 1 24V and both channel 2 0V? or are you saying not to pair channel 1 with channel 1 or channel 2 with channel 2

    Picture can confuse you. Just follow the electrical diagram and you won't have any issues.

    JordanOlsen

    The picture of my testing box simply represent an external emergency stop and a safety fence by using 2 emergency stop buttons it is not Fanuc dependent at all, I use it on other robots too.

    Each emergency stop button contains 2 forced NC contacts (forced open when pushed in).

    Therefore there are 2 separate circuit channels per button - Channel 1 and Channel 2.

    What I have added are 2 inline switches per button, so that I can force either Channel 1 or Channel 2 into a different state, creating an imbalance to the simultaneous dual channel switching, generating faults and evaluating dual channel safety circuits, mainly for training purposes, demonstrating safety device latencies, but also for when troubleshooting safety circuits on client systems to determine if it is field related, or controller related.

    What you can't see is underneath I have also installed fast acting fuses, so that in the event that I mess up wiring it into a controller, I don't damage the controller either.

    Rather than carry around a load of shorting links which I could accidently leave in a clients controller bypassing controller safety and leaving the controller in a potential hazardous condition (which in some companies, bypassing could be strictly prohibited or requires a special permit of control), I use my box instead, therefore my box is not bypassing ANY safety of the controller and I am in 100% control of it, satisfying my clients site contractor safety policy.

    Some safety circuits do not just operate on a 24V and 0V reference or P and N channel, some send a period pulse around the circuit and require to see the pulse return = safety circuit good, so by using the above box, I can also freely attach it to these circuits as well without fear of damaging the pulse generating equipment.

    Hence never mix channels

    My labels are just there for my reference to distinguish between channel 1 and channel 2 and do not reflect the voltages on safety circuits.

    Hope this clears it up a little.

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