Georg SchlegelFor machine life-long use
The IP69K combi pushbutton emergency stop is designed for mobile machines and special vehicles that are exposed to difficult environmental conditions. It was developed in a joint project between Data Panel and Schlegel.
September 22, 14:30 - 15:00 with Max Ferger, DEUTA-Werke
Soft Kill Switch
Any mechanical equipment can develop massive destructive forces when out of control. The known operational situations are well covered by safety requirements, controlled by automatons, supervised by personnel and tested at all levels of development.
Yet, there is a remainder of unforeseen circumstances, where someone needs to push the kill switch, shutting off the machinery as fast as possible. Since about a century the state of the art is: a big, red push button.
Such kill switches have many advantages, among which simplicity, ubiquitous availability, and reliability are most obvious. But even the most robust hardware switches may fail when they are needed most, during an emergency. They are required to fulfill some very low, but non-zero tolerable hazard rate (THR).
With that THR in mind, is it possible to construct kill switches on touch screens, in software? What are other requirements of these red buttons that a soft kill switch needs to fulfill?
We outline a possible approach to replacing mechanical kill switches with an embedded HW/SW co-designed solution featuring IconTrust and SelectTrust technology by DEUTA-WERKE GmbH.