To ensure fab safety, semiconductor industry environmental, health, and safety (EHS) personnel must find suitable monitoring technologies for hazardous gases. Controlling monitoring costs is a constant challenge. However, finding a reliable and specific detection method for hydrogen, which is widely used in semiconductor processing, is the primary concern. Aside from the obvious safety issues, the lack of an effective monitoring approach can mean disruption of operations caused by false alarms. SonoSense acoustic sensing technology (TeloSense, Fremont, CA) reliably and specifically monitors hydrogen gas in the fab without the costly personnel intensive upkeep of typical discrete sensors. Hydrogen gas is explosive in the range of 475% by volume in air and is commonly used with diffusion, epitaxy, and CVD processes as well as emissions abatement equipment. It is often mixed with other process gases and is a process by-product. Potential sources of hydrogen leaks within a fab include bulk hydrogen delivery tanks, gas delivery lines, gas manifolds, valve boxes, regulators, the point at which a gas line enters a tool, and exhaust ducts. If hydrogen concentrations reach the flammable range, an ignition source could cause a fire or explosion. To reduce this risk, cleanroom safety requirements generally state that hydrogen must be detected at well below its lower explosive limit (LEL) of 4% by volume in air. Gas
Products & Services
Light Curtains
Light curtains are photoelectric transmitters that project infrared beams to a receiver. They are used to guard openings and work spaces in or around machinery. When an opaque object interrupts the infrared beam, a stop signal is sent to the hazardous process to protect personnel or equipment.
Industrial Curtains
Industrial curtains separate a work environment with a hanging, flexible material. Products include curtain walls, laser curtains, mesh partitions, privacy screens, stage curtains, and welding curtains.
Light Curtain Controllers
Light curtain controllers send stop signals to machines that are guarded by light curtains, photoelectric transmitters that project an array of synchronized, parallel infrared light beams to a receiver.
Magnetic Sensor Chips
Magnetic sensor chips are semiconductor devices that detect physical quantities using magnetic principles.
Industrial Partitions
Industrial partitions are used to divide a larger area into smaller, separate workspaces. Products include curtain walls, laser curtains, stage curtains, welding curtains, room partitions, mesh or security partitions, moveable walls, office cubicles, portable partitions, privacy screens, restroom partitions, and demountable wall partitions.
Product Announcements
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Schmersal offers IP69K Rated safety light curtains and grids, suitable for outdoor, marine, and hygienic applications.
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Schmersal offers ultra-compact Type 4 safety light curtains.
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Schmersal’s SLC440 Series Safety Light Curtains and Safety Light Grids incorporate a full range of functions, highly visable signaling, and an alignment aid in a rugged housing.
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eloProg is designed for the monitoring of specific machine inputs such as photoelectric sensors, light curtains, magnetically operated sensors, emergency stop buttons, safety mats, etc.
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The PROTECT PSC system is modular, programmable safety controller suitable for the safe interconnection and analysis of several safety-oriented and standard operational input and output signals.
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The CSS30S is a non-contact, electronic safety sensor designed to monitor the closed position of hinged, sliding or removable safety guards with the aid of a coded actuator. Its stainless steel...
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Guardmaster® Area Access Control (AAC) Safety Single Beam is a Type 4 single beam safety device in a robust IP67 housing. This single beam presence sensing device is designed for use around hazardous...
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A Safety solution for supervising different types of safety devices in the same circuit...
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At Schmersal our main product focus is on switches and control modules for safety applications.
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Topics of Interest
Neither OSHA or ANSI certifies any safety device or system. However, there are many independent third-parties (notified bodies such as UL, CSA, or TUV) that can test and certify safety devices for...
At present a great deal of uncertainty is coming up about the new machine safety standards - the ISO 13849-1, IEC 62061 and the IEC 61508 for machines and plants. Nobody knows which standard will...
Air curtains are available for a wide variety of applications ranging from light commercial (such as restaurants) to heavy industrial (such as food processing plants.)...
The "danger zone" is that area of a machine or manufacturing cell within which a person will be exposed to a hazard and potential injury. When using safety light curtains it is important to locate...
Safety light curtains play an important role in many machine-safety strategies. Light curtains consist of two linear arrays of through-beam optical sensors commonly referred to as light bars. Only one...
