Patent ID: 7368702
Filing Date: 2008-05-06
Classification: F16P

Abstract:
1. A multi-optical-path photoelectric safety apparatus comprising: a light emitting unit, the light emitting unit having a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at equal intervals in a longitudinal direction of the light emitting unit; a light receiving unit forming a plurality of optical paths with the light emitting unit so as to provide a single light curtain formed along a single plane passing through the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit, the light receiving unit having a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at equal intervals in a longitudinal direction of the light receiving unit, wherein the light curtain in the single plane includes a protection area including a floating blanking area and a non-floating blanking area; and a controller for controlling the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit, wherein the controller includes a normal light curtain setting means for setting a normal light curtain function in all of the protection area for forcibly stopping operation of an apparatus protected by the light curtain when at least one of the optical paths forming the light curtain enters a light blocked state, wherein the controller also includes an area selecting means for selecting a part of all the protection area protected by the normal light curtain function as a floating blanking area such that a number of contiguous optical paths of the part of the protection area is less than the number of contiguous optical paths forming the single light curtain, any remaining area other than the floating blanking area in all of the protection area being the non-floating blanking area where the normal light curtain function is operated, wherein the controller also includes a floating blanking function setting means for setting a floating blanking function in the floating blanking area, wherein the controller also includes an optical paths number setting means for setting the number of the optical paths which is smaller than the number of optical paths of the floating blanking area, and wherein the floating blanking function forcibly stops operation of the apparatus protected by the light curtain when the number of optical paths of the floating blanking area which enter a light blocked state is larger than the set number of optical paths set in the optical paths number setting means and allows the apparatus protected by the light curtain to continuously operate when the number of optical paths which enter a light block state is equal to or smaller than the set number of optical paths set in the optical paths number setting means; and an optical path area selection switch which divides all of the optical paths into plural basic block units, each of the basic block units being composed of a predetermined number of optical paths, wherein the optical path area selection switch selects one of the basic block units; and a display unit by which a user can check whether or not the floating blanking area is set for each of the optical paths of the selected basic block unit.