White Paper

September 2018 Zoned Safety

Flexible Zoned Safety approach reduces

machine safety complexity and improves
productivity and overall equipment
effectiveness
Abstract to frequent operator interaction (e.g. load/unload
operations). These industries include automotive,
Manufacturers must prevent workplace accidents by packaging, pharmaceutical, process, stamping, general
guarding against safety risks. Reaching the desired machining, assembly operations, and tire production.
safety level can be challenging, as it can add However, guarding against safety risks isn’t easy; when
complexity and reduce productivity. This white paper changes are made to improve a machine’s safety,
reveals how a unique approach, known as Zoned operations can become even more complex or more
Safety, reduces complexity in the design of redundant restrictive. These safety measures often incorporate
pneumatic safety circuits and improves machine time-consuming procedures to stop machine operation,
productivity. It explains the advantages of the concept isolate energy, resolve issues, and restart processes –
over the traditional method of pneumatic safety circuit all of which translate into lost production time. Even so,
design using dump valves, and lists the benefits for safety must always remain the number one priority, as
both equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end users. a safety incident can result in damage to equipment,
Introduction unforeseen costs, loss of productivity from shutdowns,
and more seriously - injury to workers, or even loss
A recent study by the Occupational Safety and Health of life in a worst-case scenario.
Administration found that manufacturing accounted for
26% of work-related hospitalizations and 57% of work- By implementing the right procedures and
related amputations – both higher than any other technologies, OEMs and end users can create safer
industry in the United States. Statistics such as these manufacturing environments that reduce risk to
explain why, for both OEMs and end users, there is operators without compromising productivity. While
considerable interest and focus today on improving end users are responsible for training employees in
production machinery safety. It is vital for safe work practices, OEMs must design and build
manufacturing companies to ensure the safety and machines that are safe and compliant with government
health of their employees who are engaged in the and industry regulations and directives. To accomplish
installation, operation, adjustment, and maintenance of this task, OEMs must conduct a risk assessment to
production equipment. However, production identify the health and safety risks that exist. Machines
machinery is becoming more complex, and the high must then be designed and constructed using methods
number of interactions that take place between that will reduce these risks.
operators and machines make it challenging for a Machinery Directive and Safety Standards
company to safeguard its people and assets.
Over the past two decades, standards have evolved to
A strong emphasis on safety is especially important for guide OEMs in producing safe equipment. In Europe,
those industries that use machines that incorporate Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC became law in 2009,
horizontal or vertical movement and require intermittent with the aim of protecting people’s health and safety

www.Emerson.com
 White Paper
Zoned Safety September 2018

during installation, use, adjustments, and maintenance enters or reaches into the machine environment, all
of machinery. This directive is intended for equipment motion must stop to ensure safety. To meet
manufacturers, importers, and dealers of machinery the necessary safety requirements, the design of
and safety components, and applies to new machines machinery that has pneumatic components has
built or used in Europe. It harmonizes the level of safety traditionally involved employing separate safety circuits
of products designed and produced by different with redundant dump valves, which shut off air supply,
manufacturers. release air, and disable operation of the entire machine.
The directive is supported by various standards. For Although this approach has been used for many
example, ISO 13849-1 covers the design and years, it has certain drawbacks. It wastes energy by
construction of safety-related parts of control systems for repeatedly dumping all the compressed air in the
machinery. These include basic concepts, principles for entire machine, which must then be recharged upon
design, and engineering aspects that can be applied to start-up. Valuable time is taken up as operators are
production equipment to satisfy machinery safety. forced to wait for extended periods as entire systems
restart. This method also adds significant complexity
ISO 13849-1 introduces three key concepts for the and unnecessary cost to machine design,
design of machinery and their safety functions. These manufacture, and installation because it requires
are: more expensive components and more complicated
• The use of a risk analysis prior to design control structures with a safety system required for
• Consideration of the quantitative aspects of the each zone. Without these control structures, the
safety functions, as well as a qualitative approach sudden reintroduction of air into a pneumatic system
can cause unintended motion of components;
• The use of performance levels (PL) to assess the
ability of safety-related parts of control systems to therefore, increasing the risk of damage to the
machinery itself, or causing the products retained by
perform a safety function under foreseeable
conditions (they are defined in terms of probability jigs, fixtures or clamps to move or drop, resulting in
damage, spills, lost product and scrap. By trying to
of dangerous failure per hour)
avoid this damage and maintain expected output,
According to the European Statistics on Accidents at some operators may be tempted to allow some
Work (ESAW), the period between 2009 – when machinery to remain active when it should not be,
Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was applied – and thereby inadvertently exposing themselves and their
2013 saw non-fatal accident figures fall by 12%, and the operations to increased risk.
number of fatal accidents drop by 15%. The incidence
It is worth noting that when used in a continuous cycle
rate of accidents (accidents per 1,000 employees) in
fashion as identified below (figure 1), a redundant
manufacturing fell by 9%, and the amount of fatal dump valve’s lifecycle capability may not allow the
accidents in manufacturing went down by 13% over the user to achieve the required Performance Level (PL).
same period.
Even though this directive is initiated in and applies to
Europe, it is important to have globally designed
solutions that not only meet the European directive, but
benefit manufacturers and users worldwide.

Traditional Pneumatic Safety Circuit Design –

Using Redundant Safety Dump Valves

Visualize a production line with an operator loading a

part inside a welding machine. When the operator Figure 1: Traditional method

Page 2
White Paper
September 2018 Zoned Safety

A Better Way to Achieve Safe Machine Operation

There are three basic safety functions in pneumatic

circuits: release of energy, return home, and
stop/inhibit motion. Depending on a machine’s
pneumatic content, any of these safety functions
could be the most efficient and safest method. The
traditional dump valve solution is the most
appropriate for some applications. However, in
Figure 2: Zoned Safety method
many instances, it would be more efficient to
stop/inhibit motion, return home, or use some When Zoned Safety capability is designed into a
combination of the safety functions tailored to the manifold platform, no redesign or safety redundant
specific safety requirements of the equipment. It is dump valve is required for zone control, and the
sometimes also more efficient to inhibit specific user has optimal choices when selecting valve
portions of a machine while the rest of the machine options, accessories, and flow requirements. The
operates normally. This option has led to the assembled product is very similar to a standard
emergence of a concept called Zoned Safety - an valve system that has been used by OEMs and
innovative technology that provides a simpler and machine builders for many years.
less expensive approach to safety that meets the
requirements of Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
and the ISO 13849-1 standard.
The Zoned Safety approach should not be confused
Zoned Safety technology - introduced by Emerson
with Lockout-Tagout (LOTO), which is a mode used
on its ASCO™ valve system - simplifies the
when a machine is being serviced. In this mode,
design of a redundant pneumatic safety circuit. It
maintenance personnel engage the dump valve in
gives an engineer the capability to define and
set up as many as three independent the machine’s pneumatic system, removing and
electro-pneumatic safety zones, while also exhausting compressed air energy. Then the
allowing independent non-safe sections to co- machine power is disconnected, and a physical lock
exist within a single valve island assembly. The is installed on the dump valve. This ensures that the
ASCO Zoned Safety v a l v e s y s t e m has been machine’s pneumatic system cannot be
evaluated by TÜV Rheinland and is compatible up inadvertently restarted.
to category 3 PLd. Available with various
fieldbus protocols, this is a suitable option for most
manual load/unload stations and a wide variety of
other industrial applications. Alternative solutions
enable the isolation of only one zone per manifold,
which can make them more expensive and
complex.
Using the Zoned Safety concept, it is possible to
customize a solution that is both safe and efficient.
As the safety zones can be configured to shut
down air and power only to the group of
valves that control the machine’s specific
motion in the operator’s vicinity, there is no
need for the entire machine to be shut down. Figure 3: Pneumatic schematic of a Zoned Safety valve
system isolating a single zone, using four power valves,
This ensures operator safety while allowing the
and one pilot operated valve with external
rest of the machine to keep producing, even
components for redundant stopping of motion
though these safety circuits are enabled (see
figure 2).

Page 3
 White Paper
Zoned Safety September 2018

How Can You Benefit?

There are several ways OEMs can benefit from the
Zoned Safety valve system concept. Perhaps the
most important is the ability to greatly simplify the
design of a redundant pneumatic safety circuit with
a valve system. No longer is a separate safety circuit -
with multiple redundant dump valves and other
components that add complexity and higher cost -
required to safely isolate sections of the machine.

The ability to easily and cost-effectively design

multiple independent safety circuits into a single
pneumatic valve system can reduce the number of
safety system components by up to 35%, optimizes
the use of safety networks, and requires less Figure 4: The ASCO Zoned Safety valve system
plumbing. The approach also shrinks the size of (outlined in green), isolating two zones on an automoti ve
the safety system and enables valuable space application.
within the machine and the manifold to be used for
other purposes. The operator’s safety must be guaranteed while in
the loading zones per Machinery Directive
For most OEMs, designing multi-zoned safety 2006/42/EC and the ISO 13849-1 standard. The
circuits with a Zoned Safety valve system should conventional way to implement a safety function
be a familiar and user-friendly experience. Only would be to have one v a l v e s y s t e m dedicated
the ability to redundantly remove power and pilot to the safety circuit in the first loading station.
air to the safety system valves has been Feeding that valve system would be an
added. For equipment owners and operators, expensive redundant safety dump valve. A
Zoned Safety can simplify and reduce cost duplicate valve system and dump valve would be
while optimizing the safety of their machines. installed for the safety circuits in the second and
Best of all, productivity and asset availability third loading zones as well.
can be improved since the user does not have
to shut down the entire machine when safety With a Zoned Safety approach, a much simpler
circuits are enabled. design is possible that allows safety operation
without the need to dump air to the entire
manifold. Three independent zones within a
single valve system with Zoned Safety
Applying Zoned Safety in an Automation capability would independently control the safety
Workflow
function in the three loading stations. The
An automated machine can have three loading additional valve systems, dump valves, and
stations. As parts move down the line, an operator fieldbus nodes shown in figure 1 would not be
adds a stamped metal part to the welded assembly. required.
To avoid injury, the operator should not put his Conclusion
hands into the active loading area. To ensure
safety, the operator must walk through a light The implementation of Machinery
curtain that disables the power and pilot air (only to Directive 2006/42/EC and the ISO 13849-1
the redundant pneumatic valves controlling the standard has put an emphasis on the design and
moving components in the work station), preventing manufacture of safe production equipment.
unwanted motion. He loads the part into a fixture, Traditionally, discrete pneumatic safety circuits
walks back out through the light curtain, initiates have been designed using dump valves and
operation, and the machine restarts. other components to achieve diverse
redundancy. However, these safety systems are
complex, costly, and frequently require the
shutdown of the entire production machine.

Page 4
 White Paper
September 2018 Zoned Safety

Zoned Safety design is an integrated approach to

safety control where multiple independent safety
zones can be created within a single
pneumatic valve system. Air and power are
disabled only to the components controlling
equipment in the operator’s vicinity. The rest
of the machine can remain in operation when
these safety circuits are enabled.

Zoned Safety greatly simplifies safety circuit design and

reduces the number of system components. Its use is
strongly recommended for any pneumatically controlled
production equipment requiring compliance with
Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and the ISO 13849-1
standard.

Find out more by visiting www.Emerson.com, or

contact us.

Emerson Automation Solutions

ASCO Valv e Inc. – United States
160 Park Avenue,
Florham Park, NJ, 07932
T. +1 (0)800-972-2726
E. [email protected]
www.Emerson.com

Emerson Automation Solutions

ASCO SAS – France
53 Rue de la Beace
28111 Lucé
T. +33 (0)2 37 24 47 72
E. [email protected]
www.Emerson.com

Emerson Automation Solutions

ASCO ASIA – Singapore
Blk 4008, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10
#04-17/22, TECHplace I
Singapore 569625
T. +65 6556 1100
E. [email protected]
www.Emerson.com

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