Trustworthy Emergency Stop Control Devices: Reasons Schneider is the Name of the Game

The level of automation that’s utilized in modern industrial facilities is astonishing. However, anytime an emergency stop needs to be manually initiated, these facilities have to be able to bring multiple mechanical or chemical operations to an immediate, but controlled halt that’s outside the scope of normal shutdown procedures.

Safety is critical during an emergency shutdown; and the timing and sequences involved with stopping and isolating complex industrial processes can often be instrumental in preventing a secondary, or potentially even more devastating hazard from occurring. These are the reasons why factories and plants are so cautious about who they’re sourcing their emergency stop controls from. These devices have to perform flawlessly, and they have to be instantly identifiable and easy to operate under stressful conditions; that’s why for many of Australia’s biggest industries, there’s only one qualified sourcing option: Schneider.

Trust Schneider Emergency Stop Devices to Keep Your Plant Safe and Compliant

Whether it involves a single machine or an entire plant, an emergency stop procedure is the most direct, and instantaneous action that can be taken to avert, or mitigate a dangerous situation. Personnel have to have the ability to respond without hesitating, which is why Schneider emergency stop button devices are Australia’s most trusted choice when it comes to EMS (Emergency Machine Stop) and EMO (Emergency Off) controls.

Make no mistake: anytime there’s an emergency, the risk of personal injury and property damage is going to be too high to trust stopping machine and plant functions to lesser-quality devices. There’s much more at stake than just a few hours of lost production time; and Schneider’s reputation for manufacturing the world’s most reliable control gears and switches gives companies a clear advantage when it comes to devices that are:

• Australian Standard/New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS) compliant. In accordance with AS/NZS standards, all Schneider emergency switch devices are designed to be ergonomic, highly visible, and outfitted with appropriately coloured buttons, backgrounds, and housings that make them instantly recognizable in an emergency.
• Positive activation and deactivation. Schneider stopping devices feature a fail-safe design which, after a switch has been activated, or Normally Closed (NC), effectively separates the blocked machine from any powered circuit until the twist-style switch is manually deactivated, or normally opened (NO), allowing it to be repowered.
• Resistant to harsh environments. By design, an emergency stop switch has to be able to function under unpredictable conditions; that’s why in addition to being both vibration and impact resistant, Schneider devices are also IP66-, IP67-, IP69, and IP69K rated against intrusion from dust and water.

The fact is, while accepted Corporate Safety Plans should include measured ways to control and mitigate operational abnormalities before they become emergencies, the use of emergency off switches must always be available as a complementary measure. Emergency planning has to be consistent with their use as devices of last resort; and depending on the facility and nature of the work, Safety Managers need to ensure that adequate numbers of emergency stop push button devices are installed where they’re needed, and that they’re function-tested regularly.

Schneider Builds Stops in all Configurations, for all Contingencies

You can buy emergency stop button devices from Schneider in three different configurations:

• Emergency switching off switches. These mechanical latch/turn-to-release switches feature a red 40mm mushroom-type pushbutton with a 22mm mounting diameter, and are dependent on the speed at which the button is pressed to engage either its single NC, or NC + NC contact states.
• Emergency stop pushbuttons. These mechanical switches feature the same latching mechanisms and diameters as switching off switches, but their engagement and disengagement are both independent of the speed at which the button is pressed, and are available in a NC + NC contact state.
• Stop control stations. There are two types of emergency stop stations: complete and pendant. Complete stations feature emergency stop controls housed in a yellow polycarbonate housing, while standard- and medium-duty pendant controls feature four function buttons, one emergency button configuration, both in a NC + NC contact state.

It’s also no surprise that with thousands of static switch controls and programmable control systems installed in most plants and factories, that the correct wiring and placement of emergency stop devices is a paramount concern. AS/NZS 4024 is very specific about how these potentially life-saving electrical devices have to be both constructed and connected; and fortunately, Facility Engineers and Safety Managers know that when they plan with Schneider emergency push button devices, they won’t have any compliance problems from the equipment side.

Emergency Stop that Lets Businesses Focus on the Bigger Issues

Let’s be honest: when it comes to the reliability of emergency off devices, the integrity of the installation is as important as the devices themselves. There are a host of operational factors that have to be determined before an install is commenced, including:

• Whether a single machine, or multiple machines need to be shut down;
• Whether parts of those machines should remain powered to prevent a hazard from escalating; or,
• Whether stopping a machine operation could possibly create a new hazard.

These factors are even more prevalent if programmable plant control systems are involved, where even the possibility of a manual shutdown device being overridden by an automated control has to be considered. The added convenience that comes with using Schneider emergency stops in these installations, however, means that once all the technical aspects have been addressed, managers are able to concentrate on issues such as:

• The crucial placement and marking of emergency devices;
• Accessibility to the devices by operators and other personnel; and,
• The number of emergency devices needed per operation.

With Schneider’s reliability, managers and engineers can comfortably focus their attention on the installation itself, in absolute confidence that their stopping devices are fully up to the task.

The Final Word

At the end of the day, while modern industrial facilities are safer than they’ve ever been, with factories, mills, and mines of all sizes performing thousands of operating processes every day, emergencies can still occur. Operators and floor personnel are inherently the first responders when these situations arise, and they need the ability to bring those processes to a quick stop if there’s an imminent danger to life, limb, property, or the environment.

Schneider understands that any action taken needs to be quick and conclusive, which is why their emergency stop devices are the ones that Australian companies rely on the most. A few seconds can make all the difference between a minor disruption and a major disaster, and their positive emergency stop devices can prevent one from mushrooming into another.