In practice, the topic of safety relating to pneumatic components should always be considered, with technical documentation and risk assessments determining its importance. The EC Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC is the definitive fundamental guideline for the functional safety of machines, and the harmonised standard EN ISO 13849 is also relevant. The good news is that Festo can provide expert support on all safety-related topics. As well as advice, we also offer precise application notes for our solutions.
Festo offers a wide range of individual pneumatic components that need to be assessed as part of the system. It is not like electrics where you work with certified components; instead, the functional safety of a specific pneumatic application usually needs to be designed and built with common hardware components. In this case, it is the machine manufacturer's responsibility to provide the safety-related evaluation and documentation.
Safety-related pneumatics is anything but trivial, which is why we provide our products with all the relevant data as standard. What’s more, our project engineers are on hand to offer you expert advice until you are up to date with what is required, for example by going through the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis with you. This service provides you with a quicker and more cost-effective way to ensure your system is safe.