Troax's Smart Fix modular machine guarding is now regularly being used to create machine safety systems by Meltech Engineering, a specialist in the design and manufacture of extrusion, winding and coiling equipment. The company is using Smart Fix to construct safety fencing whenever it installs high speed, automated wire and cable manufacturing equipment to its clients throughout the UK.
Blackburn-based Meltech specialise in developing electric-powered furnaces, extrusion and automated winding and coiling equipment to customers in the aerospace, marine, plastics, food packaging, agricultural irrigation and other markets.
.The complex design and fast-moving, rotating parts of this type of machinery make effective guarding systems a key requirement of machine installation as Peter Drever at Meltech explains: "Ensuring an installation meets relevant Health and Safety directives is clearly a fundamental part of the service we provide to our clients. Troax's Smart Fix safety fencing has simplified this process for us enormously, making it much easier for us to install effective and well-designed machine guarding systems. And as the fencing has already been designed by Troax to comply with all relevant Health and Safety directives and machine safety standards, in effect it comes 'pre-certified', which also helps to make our job much more straightforward."
He continues: "Smart Fix's modular design is another very important advantage for us. Our machine guarding requirements can vary significantly, ranging from a single machine that could measure 2m x 2m to a multiple machine installation covering 5m x 10m; this is where Smart Fix's modular design really comes into its own. Because it is supplied in a modular kit format, it is both quick to install on site and to adapt to suit the requirements of the installation."
"It's unusual to find a modular system of this quality at such a competitive cost and it's proved so successful that we intend to continue using it for these types of machine installation."
Smart Fix fencing incorporates a number of innovative design features which make it exceptionally fast and simple to install by just one operative. It is supplied with specially designed brackets and hinges to simplify fitting while doors are supplied in a pre-assembled kit and can be fitted with Troax's Safe-Lock mechanical inter-locking system.
Smart Fix's unique design also means that it is exceptionally easy to remove and replace panels once in position, taking less than two minutes to take a panel from a run of fencing to allow maintenance staff to quickly gain access to guarded areas to carry out machine servicing or repairs.
Smart Fix's wire mesh panels are constructed from steel tube for maximum strength and rigidity and have undergone energy absorption tests to ensure maximum safety. In addition, the fencing saves floor space within the production area as its unique 100mm x 20mm mesh aperture enables it to be placed close to the automated machinery.