Strong OSHA Content and New Technical Report at National Robot Safety Conference XVII

YPSILANTI, Mich., Sept. 23 -- For the first time, an OSHA Compliance Officer is leading a session on Machine Tool Safety at RIA's National Robot Safety Conference XVII in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The Conference is October 24-27, 2005, and continues a 17 year tradition of safety training by Robotic Industries Association, the official secretariat for the ANSI robot safety standard. Lately, the Association has added machine tool safety training to the program (such as the B11 series standard), and international standards (such as ISO) also are covered.

The ANSI/RIA R15.06-1999 Robot Safety Standard is one of the most widely distributed and accepted standards for industrial safety with more than 12,000 copies in circulation. It includes a section on Risk Assessment, with in- depth sessions on this topic including expert instruction from the standard's authors during the main Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday (October 25-26), as well as Pre- and Post-Conference Workshops.

"As many of you know, ANSI (the American National Standards Institute -- the governing body for standards in the United States) requires that standards developing organizations review standards they are responsible for on a five- year cycle," remarked Jeff Fryman, RIA's Standards Development Director in recent discussions. "Obviously, if you add five to 1999, you know that such a review has taken place. The decision taken was to not make any changes to the R15.06 -- yet."

Changes to the standard are coming, however. In fact, there is a new Technical Report on the subject of Teaching Multiple Robots that will be covered at the Conference.

"In reviewing the status of the R15.06, the committee (felt this) was an area of concern that was not fully explored in the standard -- the issue of teaching multiple robots within a single safeguarded area," said Fryman. "While not explicitly prohibited, it would be easy to interpret the requirements in the 1999 edition of the standard as discouraging it. The committee felt it important to more fully explore this need and provide guidance to the robot users."

This four-day Conference includes a trade fair on Tuesday, October 25, with some 40 leading robot and safety equipment suppliers, systems integrators and consultants on Tuesday. Official sponsors include RIA members: ABB Inc., FANUC Robotics America, Inc., Motoman, Inc., Nachi Robotic Systems, Inc., Pilz Automation Safety, Scientific Technologies Inc., SICK, Inc.

"The National Robot Safety Conference features presentations from top robot safety professionals as well as presentations of interest to anyone associated with industrial machine safety," said Fryman. "Get the answers you need to your safety questions; learn from the experts, network with your peers, and see the latest in robot and safety equipment."

For more information, call 734/994-6088, or visit RIA's Web site at http://www.roboticsonline.com/ . Founded in 1974, RIA is North America's leading robotics trade group, representing some 240 robotics manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups, and consulting firms.