Patent ID: 6979814

Claim:
A multi-optical-path photoelectric safety apparatus comprising: a light emitting unit; a light receiving unit forming a light curtain with the light receiving unit; and a muting function for temporarily rendering a protection function of the light curtain ineffective by allowing a predetermined light block substance to pass through the light curtain, wherein the muting function includes defining a muting area where the muting function is performed and the muting area is set to a region of a detection area forming the light curtain and a protection function is performed on a remaining portion of the detection area forming the light curtain, wherein the light emitting unit has a plurality of light emitting elements that are equally spaced from each other and placed in a row, and the light receiving unit is arranged so as to face the light emitting unit, the light receiving unit has a corresponding number of light receiving elements as the number of the light emitting elements, the light receiving elements are equally spaced from each other and are placed in a row, and wherein each of the light receiving elements and a corresponding light emitting element form an optical path for forming the light curtain; and a display section for displaying whether the muting area is set for each of the optical paths.