10.4 Operation with an IR Safety System
Note:
This section describes the various operating and warning messages that may be observed on the AT3600 when it is being used with a safety light curtain. Please consult the documentation supplied with your safety system for its operating instructions.
The tester has four distinct points in its operation when it may check the condition of the safety interlock:
- Running a high voltage test during program execution
- Performing the fixture compensation for a high voltage test within a program
- Running a high voltage test in measure mode
- Performing the fixture compensation prior to running a high voltage test in measure mode
As indicated in the previous section entitled ‘Testing the Safety System’, the safety checks are made both before and during the measurement.
If the safety system indicates that the light curtain is broken before the start of the measurement, the tester will display one of four ‘suspended’ messages on the front panel, depending on which of the four operations listed above you were trying to perform:
(a)
Where ‘n’ is the number of the test with the dangerous source.
(b)
(c)
(d)
Where ‘XXXX’ is the appropriate test mnemonic.
Operation will remain suspended at this point until the safety system indicates that it is safe to proceed, after which test execution will carry on as normal. If you do not wish to continue from this point, pressing the STOP soft-key will halt the test execution and return the display to the appropriate higher level menu selection.
If the light curtain is broken after the measurement has started, then the test will be stopped, and the high voltage source shut down. The front panel of the tester will show a message containing the word ‘STOP’, again with the exact text varying depending upon the operation that you were trying to perform. Examples are as follows:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
There is no way that the measurement can be recovered from this point. For program execution, this means that the entire program has to be re-run from the first test; and for measure mode, the test has to be re-entered. In the case of fixture compensation, either the compensation for the entire program must be re-run, or (in measure mode) the compensation for the required test.
Note that during the normal operation of changing transformers, the indicator on the slave column can show a red light. This merely indicates that the light curtain has been broken; it should automatically reset and return to the green indicator when the operator removes their hand.
When program execution has finished, and the front panel LED changes to either red (fail) or green (pass), then it is safe for the operator to change to the next transformer to be tested.