The V300 WS safe camera system from Sick is space saving, rapid and suitable for hand protection. It was the first device of its type for Category 3 protection of hazardous points-of-operation in compliance with EN 61496-1 (SIL2 according to IEC 61508). Thus, access openings on assembly, handling and industrial robots, inspection machines, and other manually operated workstations involving cyclical and occasional access can be monitored with the vision system with optimum safety and without barriers.
The V300 WS safe camera system is electro-sensitive protective equipment made based on image-processing technology. The sensor’s illumination and receiver are integrated in a single housing and it comes with supplementary Reset and Electronic Device Monitoring (EDM) functions. The compact triangular housing allows mounting in and on the corner of a workstation’s grooved section frame.
A reflector is attached on the opposite side of the mounting location. With its 110° angle of view, the camera system automatically detects the entire length and breadth of the reflector area and aligns the monitoring field on it with a resolution of 20mm. The V300 WS responds within 20ms if anyone reaches into the machine while it is running and immediately stops the process.
The V300 WS safe camera system monitors the reflector strip for dirt, holes, damaged areas or objects placed upon it. When a problem has been detected, it is pinpointed via the LED indicators, because each of the four indicators monitors a different segment within the field of view of the V300 WS. If the reflector strip is longer be cleaned or is too damaged, the full functionality of the V300 WS is rapidly restored by simply attaching a new reflector strip.
The V300 WS can be easily mounted with two screws. Even as a single sensor, the V300 WS generates a diagonal protective field with a maximum range of 1.41 m, to protect openings with dimensions of 1 m x 1 m. If the access opening is larger, it is possible to connect two devices to one another through the standard synchronisation input and thus double the size of the protective field. Two safe camera systems are also the perfect solution when two adjoining sides require protection.
The V300 WS is the ideal solution for the Safety Categories 3 or PLd and SIL2 not covered by light curtains. Users can employ a more reasonably priced Category 3 system for those applications that do not require Safety Category 4 according to the risk analysis.