Multiside access vs single-side guarding

When you build or retrofit a machine, you always hit the same headache:

Do we just guard the front, or do we wrap the whole cell with light?

That’s the real-world choice between マルチサイド・アクセス・プロテクション そして single-side guarding. Both work. Both can be safe. The trick is matching them to the way people and pallets really move around your line.

Multi-Sided Access Protection Safety Light Curtains

Multi-sided access protection means you build an “invisible fence” around two, three, or even four open sides of the danger zone. You use safety light curtains plus mirrors or posts to bend the beams around corners.

On the NEW STAR side, this fits products in the
Multi-Sided Access Protection safety light curtains category.

Typical features you see there:

• Two to four sides guarded with one transmitter / receiver pair and corner mirrors.
• Different beam pitches for finger, hand, or body detection.
• OSSD outputs ready for safety relays or controllers.
• Options like muting, EDM and restart interlock so material can pass but unsafe entry still stops the machine.

In simple words: if people, forklifts or AGVs can walk in from more than one direction, multi-sided access protection saves your life (and your EHS report).

Common multi-side setups:

• Robot palletizing cell open on three sides.
• Press line with side loading and front unloading.
• Packaging island where pallets come in from the left and finished goods leave on the right.
• Shared buffer zone where an AGV crosses in and out all day.

Instead of building a full steel cage, you create a clean light curtain perimeter and keep the area more open and flexible.

Single-Side Guarding with Compact Safety Light Curtains

Single-side guarding is much more straight: one access opening, one safety light curtain, the rest is blocked by fixed guards or the machine frame.

Here you usually pick something from the
小型安全ライトカーテン series, or a model like
DGD1220マシンセーフティライトカーテン.

These units are slim, short, and easy to drop into:

• Press brake front openings.
• Small injection molding machines with one operator side.
• Single infeed of a conveyor where the back side is against a wall.
• Service doors that need fast access but still must shut the hazard down.

Single-side guarding works best when you can honestly say:
“there is only one way a person can reach the danger zone”.

For busy maintenance teams, this is also easier to understand and debug. One pair of light curtains, one safety relay, job done.

Multi-Sided Access Protection vs Single-Side Guarding Comparison

You can use this table directly in your page.

Robot Cell Multi-Sided Access Protection Use Cases

In a robot palletizing or welding cell, you almost never have a single doorway. Forklifts come from the side, maintenance walks in from the back, and process engineers want a clean front to see what the robot is doing.

A multi-sided protection set makes more sense here:

• You build an L- or U-shape light curtain around the open sides.
• You add muting beams so pallets move in and out without stopping the line every second.
• You feed all OSSD signals into a safety relay from the
  安全装置 series so EDM, restart interlock and E-stops stay under one roof.

Operators can still walk around the cell. When someone actually crosses the light, the robot dumps power in milliseconds. No drama, no arguing with the safety guy later.

For OEMs and system integrators, this also sells well: you ship one skid with integrated multi-sided light curtains, mirrors and logic instead of a pile of mixed third-party parts.

Conveyor Infeed Single-Side Guarding Use Cases

Now think about a simpler job: a carton conveyor feeding a case packer. The operator stands in front, back is a wall, sides are blocked by other machines.

Here a single compact curtain is usually enough:

• One 小型安全ライトカーテン across the infeed.
• Or a specific model like DGD1220 with 20 mm resolution for hand protection.
• Wired straight into a safety relay with basic indicators, so even night-shift techs can figure out what is wrong.

You dont need mirrors, you dont need a huge project. You just pick the correct safety distance, make sure there is no hole behind the packer, and you are done.

Same idea works on:

• Small presses with one operator station.
• Benchtop assembly machines.
• Simple labeling or sealing machines where body entry is impossible from other sides.

Measurement Light Curtains for DWS and Sorting

In logistics and e-commerce you hit a slightly different problem. You still need safety around infeed and outfeed, but you also need to measure parcels and totes for DWS and routing.

That’s where 測定用ライトカーテン come in:

• They give tight beam spacing for accurate width, height and sometimes length.
• You can count objects, check profiles and trigger alarms when a box is out of spec.
• Together with safety curtains and 光電センサー devices, you cover both people protection and process control in one consistent sensor family.

This is nice for integrators because you stay with one brand, one wiring style, one support team, not a zoo of mixed hardware.

Choosing a Guarding Strategy for Your Line

When a customer or internal team asks “multiside or single-side?”, you can walk through a simple checklist:

1. How many real access sides?
   If there is honestly just one, single-side guarding is normally fine.
   If you can walk around and touch the hazard from more directions, you need multi-sided or extra fencing.
2. What moves through the opening?
   Only people on foot → single-side with correct resolution may be enough.
   People plus pallets or AGVs → multi-sided with muting is safer and smoother.
3. What is the enviroment like?
   Wet, dusty, cleaning with water? Look at waterproof units such as
   SWP2840 industrial light curtains ODM Detect.
   Clean assembly hall? Standard compact or general-use curtains are ok.
4. Who will keep it running?
   If you have strong safety engineers on site, they can handle mirror alignment and muting logic.
   If the team is small and very busy, simpler single-side guarding plus robust フローセンサー and other process sensors might be safer in the long run, because people actually maintain it.
5. Any future layout changes planned?
   If you expect to move machines, add robots, or extend conveyors, multi-sided light curtains give more freedom than fixed cages. You just move posts and adjust fields instead of cutting and welding steel all over again.

How NEW STAR Machine Safety Sensors Support Both Guarding Styles

NEW STAR positions itself as a ワンストップ機械安全センサーメーカー with ISO-certified factory and OEM / ODM service. That means you can support both guarding philosophies without changing supplier.

• Multi-sided guarding:
  Multi-Sided Access Protection safety light curtains with mirrors and muting for robot cells, palletizing, heavy machinery and open packaging islands.
• Single-side guarding:
  小型安全ライトカーテン そして DGD1220マシンセーフティライトカーテン for presses, injection machines, access doors and conveyor points.
• Process and measurement:
  測定用ライトカーテン, 光電センサー そして フローセンサー products to support DWS, counting, profile control and media monitoring around the same cells.
• Logic and integration:
  安全装置 modules to connect curtains, mats, interlocks and E-stops into one safe loop.

For OEMs, integrators, and end users in packaging, logistics, stamping, plastics, automotive, 3C and battery lines, this gives a simple message:

pick the guarding style that really fits the risk and the process, and NEW STAR can still deliver a consistent, customizable, bulk-ready solution behind it.