Cooper Tire gets a Better Grip...

...on Machine Safety with JOKAB SAFETY Vital Solution!

The Cooper Tire and Rubber Company Europe Limited, the manufacturer of Avon brand tires and recognized as a world leader in the pneumatic tire market, has begun updating machine safety systems with the Vital Solution.

Engineers at the company had the task of updating the safety system on a Rubber Calender machine built in the 1960’s. The new system is comprised of two Vital control units monitoring a combined total of 40 safety devices to maintain Category 4 Safety Level in accordance with EN954-1. The devices were an arrangement of various existing safety components such as footswitches, emergency stop pushbuttons, grab wire switches and limit switches. Jokab Safety non contact Eden switches were used to replace conventional switches where mechanical switches were found to have a reduced service life. Where other manufacturer’s existing products were being used, the Jokab Safety Tina interfaces made it a quick and easy transition for devices to be incorporated on to the Vital Solution.

A spokesman for Cooper Tires said that they searched the market to find a safety system that would fulfill their strict requirements. One such requirement was the need to have local indication and feedback to the PLC of the safety device status. The important deciding factor for choosing Jokab Safety was the limited amount of downtime needed to convert the old safety system to the Vital Solution. This was achieved during the Christmas holiday period. The machine has been operational 24 hours per day, 7 days per week since, in order to meet the demand for their products.

The installation engineers were impressed with the modular aspects of Jokab Safety’s unique system. The ability to “daisy chain” safety devices, have indication of where a fault occurs both locally and remote in the circuit, and still meet category 4 EN954-1 were key points.

The installation met with all of the engineers expectations and as a result Cooper Tire and Rubber have already invested in a second Vital System. (Conrad Slater, Jokab Safety UK)