November 2005:
Magsafe - A fresh approach to Safety Gate Interlocking.

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Magsafe is Smartscan's latest innovation in machine safety. An electro-magnetic interlocking system for controlling personnel access through the gates and doors set within the perimeter safety fencing or screens surrounding potentially hazardous machinery.

The key design element in Magsafe was to lock the door using magnetic force rather than by mechanical means and to remove the problems that plague existing gate locks due to liquid and dirt exposure in combination with the rigors of daily operation. This causes fatigue and leads to mechanical failure of the product. The ability to withstand harsh industrial environments such as water, dust and corrosive liquids Magsafe is the perfect solution for most guard locking applications.

In addition to this Smartscan has applied its safety light curtain technology background to the safety gate interlocking market by providing a system control unit which continuously monitors the on and off state of the magnets. This ensures the system detects when the gate is open and when it is closed. Only when the gate is closed and the magnetic locking force applied, will the control system allow machine operation.

A typical system comprises of electromagnetic gate locks, controller, local access control unit with ‘traffic light’ entry condition indication and connection cables.

The system features include, Category 4 EN 954-1 safety integrity, selectable run down timers for gate release, no moving parts significantly reducing mechanical wear, holding force up to 500 N per magnet, operation of up to 8 monitored magnetic gate locks from a single controller, easy alignment between magnet and target, dual channel safety relay outputs, safety monitoring (EDM) and E-Stop inputs.