Machinery safety is an important but often undertaught subject, and the terminology in ISO 12100 can make risk assessment difficult to understand. This example works through the procedures and methods in ISO 12100 and the old ISO 14121-2.

Risk assessment identifies risks and hazards in a machine design. As machine designers, we must make our machines safe for people to operate. Finding and eliminating those risks is ultimately our responsibility.

Safety relays help you build the safety circuits used in machine design. To understand their purpose in keeping operations safe, you need to know the basics of how the relays work and why these circuits are used.

Safety can become confusing because it comes with a large amount of terminology. These terms originate in the standards that describe safety circuits and functional safety. Those standards also describe safety relays and their operation.