Interlock

How it is used

Used for both safety devices and program logic. Guard doors have interlock switches, sometimes with guard locking; in the PLC, interlocks stop a cylinder moving while a clamp is open. Bypassing a safety interlock is a serious safety violation.

Example sentences

1. Someone had taped over the door interlock, so the robot kept running with the door open.

2. Add an interlock in the PLC so the conveyor can't start while the lift is up.

Common collocations

• door interlock
• interlock switch
• bypass an interlock
• guard locking
• safety interlock

Related terms

• guardingPhysical barriers such as fences, covers and doors that keep people out of the dangerous area of a machine or robot cell while it is running.
• light curtainA safety device with a transmitter and a receiver that create a row of invisible light beams. When a person breaks the beams, the machine is stopped.
• emergency stopA red mushroom-shaped button on a yellow background, or the function behind it, that stops a machine as quickly and safely as possible in a dangerous situation.
• PLCShort for programmable logic controller: a rugged industrial computer that reads inputs from sensors and switches, runs a control program and drives outputs such as motors, valves and lamps.
• ladder logicA graphical PLC programming language that looks like an electrical relay diagram, with contacts and coils placed on horizontal lines called rungs between two vertical rails.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• interlock · Chemical Engineering

More terms: Machine and Robot Safety

• risk assessment
• lockout/tagout
• hazard
• enabling switch
• protective stop
• collision detection