Having been a victim first hand, of an incident where interlocks were disabled, I can attest to their use.
I run a production machine thats a 5 axis CNC machine, that utilizes a 2k watt CO2 laser to weld the ends of turbine blades for industrial gas turbine generators.
I'd been w/ the company a few months, and the interlocks had been disabled prior to my starting there, so I wasnt ever taught about the interlocks. I had been running a production batch that had a pause between parts, and I would go into the machine during the pause. During an absence from work one day, this pause was unintentionally removed from the program by a co-worker. Upon returning to work, I was running the machine, and when the machine reached the point where it normally paused, I got into the machine, and put my hand into the active laser. Thankfully it only caused a minor injury, it was still scary, and a real eye opener.
Needless to say, since then, every machine I use, has working & functioning interlocks on them.  |