Skynet - It Begins

[Coss]

Man crushed to death by robot at car factory

 

 

A worker at a Volkswagen factory in Germany has died, after a robot grabbed him and crushed him against a metal plate.

The 22-year-old man died in hospital after the accident at a plant in Baunatal, 100km north of Frankfurt.

He was working as part of a team of contractors installing the robot when it grabbed him, according to the German car manufacturer.

Heiko Hillwig, from Volkswagen, blamed "human error" rather than the robot.

Image caption Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn visited the Kassel-Baunatal plant in 2010, where the worker was killed

He said: "It [robot] can be programmed to perform various tasks in the assembly process.

"It normally operates within a confined area at the plant, grabbing auto parts and manipulating them."

Another contractor was there at the time when the accident happened, on Monday, but wasn't harmed,

He declined to give any more details about the case, citing an "ongoing investigation".

German news agency dpa reported that prosecutors were now investigating and deciding who to prosecute.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...-at-car-factory

[Coss]

dble

[My Penis is hungry]

Gave you seen the lady who made a twitter about this?

 

The Sarah Connor, the twitt has gone viral, and Shea never even seen terminator movies!

[Guest]

" German news agency dpa reported that prosecutors were now investigating and deciding who to prosecute "

 

He was working as part of a team of contractors installing the robot, this must be human error in the installation and testing process so who do they prosecute ?

[Specialist]

There've been a couple of accidents like this.

 

They usually get traced back to the human technician forgetting to throw the robot's kill switch before entering the work cell. The kill switch disables power to the robot. If the kill switch is thrown, the robot CAN'T move. USUALLY, there's a big rotating warning light connected to the switch, so that everyone in the area KNOWS whether the robot is live or not.

 

Now, if there wasn't a kill switch, that would be criminal negligence at the very least, and it would be far more likely to be classes as reckless indifference homicide. If the kill switch was inside the work cell, that's just as bad. You absolutely do not want the technician to have to go into a live work cell to throw the kill switch in the first place. If someone else reset the switch while the technician was in the work cell, there's good reason for an investigation. A GOOD kill switch will allow the technician to throw it and then LOCK it, so that he's the ONLY one who can reset it after he's finished.

[Mekong]

Mr Specialist, one does appear to have a limited knowledge on isolations and safeguarding systems.

 

For a start, the kill switch is NEVER used for isolations, a kill switch (aka Emergency Shutdown Push Button) is wired into the PRIORITY SHUTDOWN circuit of the robots MCC (Motor Control Circuit) other inputs in this circuit may include limit switches on guards, emergency trip wires etc. If any of these devices in the PRIORITY SHUTDOWN circuit were to fail they would FAIL SAFE i.e. open circuit which also accounts for failure of wiring, loose terminals etc.

 

Isolations are done at the bus bar of the MCC under a LOTO (Lockout Tagout) procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockout-tagout which is administered by the Owner / Operator of the facility under their own SRCC (Safety Rules Clearance Certificate) guidelines.

 

As the article states "Ongoing Investigations" since this was the installation of a robot by a contractor as a guess I would say that it was a new installation, so the question first to be asked is "Did the installation come under Owner / Operators SRCC's" If YES then why was the technician working on the robot without a PTW (Permit to Work) and if NO then how was the robot energised without coming under SRCC's which as well as many other things includes the full testing of control and PRIORITY STOP circuits.

 

Now for a multinational such as VAG, much like other major multinationals such as SHELL, Exxonmobil, Toshiba etc would never cut corners on SRCC's where as Jim bobs timber mill Greensboro NC USA or Somchai's reprocessing plant in Samut Praken may turn a blind eye.

 

Now it is possible to work on a new machine which is under SRCC, being covered by a LWC (Limited Work Certificate) but the only people who are allowed to take out LWC's are "Competent Engineers" and not 22 year old technicians. So either a) the 22 year old technician was working without a permit or he was working under the direction of a Competent Engineer who failed in his responsibilities.

 

In industry there is no such thing as "Human Error" procedures are implemented so human error is engineered out of the equation unless procedures are ignored by GROSS NEGLIGENCE.

[Specialist]

Thank you.

 

I stand corrected and suitably chastised.

 

As my penance, when and if you and I next happen to be in the same disreputable bar at the same time, first round is on me. (And I'm at T minus 7 weeks and counting...)

[cavanami]

Lock out - tag out...appears they failed to follow this safety procedure.

 

Usually such moving machines will have a safety cage around them. As added safety, if one were to open the door of the

safety cage, this should be the same as pressing the E-stop pushbutton.

 

Light curtain are often used, like on some elevator doors. Break the light beam, can be the same as pressing the E-stop.