Question:

When designing a safety circuit for a machine, why should we use a Safety Relay instead of a non-safety relay?

Answer:

The action of a Safety Relay involves a forcibly-guided mechanism, which prevents the dual channel contact points from being in operating states at the same time, in the event of a welded contact. This also allows the Safety Relay to detect if contact welding has occurred within the relay itself.

A standard non-safety relay does not have this functionality.

Note that merely using a Safety Relay does not make a circuit ‘safe’, proper safety design, redundancy and self-monitoring functionality must all be combined to create a safety circuit for a machine. Please contact your Omron representative for further information.