Malaga Company Light Years ahead

Lazer Safe designs, manufactures and exports planar laser beam guard and control systems for hydraulic presses and press brakes.
The company opened in Subiaco in 1998 with three employees. It moved to Malaga in 2000 and now has 30 employees.
Lazer Safe exports its safety system to China, the United States and most of Europe.
It exports more than 95 per cent of its product and was a finalist in the 2003 WA Industry and Export Awards.
The safety system – including the software, hardware and laser units – is assembled using Australian-made products and tested at Lazer Safe’s Malaga premises.
Hydraulic press brakes use metal blades to bend and form sheet metal and operators can lose their fingers in accidents.
Lazer Safe general manager Tony Pignat said there was one safety related incident a month on average in WA from accidents with press brakes.
These accidents often involved unguarded machines or machines whose light curtain safety systems had been bypassed.
Lazer Safe’s guarding system uses two planar laser beams that sense the immediate area around the blades. If this area is obstructed by something other than the tool the system stops the press brake.
Previous safety measures included guards in front of the cutting edge, straps that kept workers’ arms from going too far and “light curtains”.
Mr Pignat said “light curtains” were imprecise and could be easily circumvented.
Lazer Safe’s system enabled press brake operators to hold their work pieces very close to the machine tools , increasing productivity and enabling them to do detailed work.
Lazer Safe representatives demonstrated the system’s capabilities by making business card holders at a trade show in Melbourne earlier this year.
“Being able to work close to the tool is very important,” Mr Pignat said.
“To achieve that level of accuracy before you had to compromise on safety and productivity.
“Lazer Safe’s reaction time is much faster – it can take significantly more than 10mm for a blade to stop under other systems but we’ve got it down to a 4mm stopping distance.
“The system checks that stopping distance every cycle; it is self-checking and self-calibrating. If it finds anything wrong it won’t let the machine operate.
“Our system is the only laser system with full redundancy and checking of stopping distance and operating speed.
“One business can get up to 700 bends an hour with complete safety using our system. The best you can do with a light curtain is in the range of 200 to 300 bends an hour, so Lazer Safe is two to four times more productive.”
Lazer Safe’s guarding system can be installed into brake presses when they are made or added to press brakes that are already being used.
The control system software enables users to tailor the system to meet their needs without compromising the system productivity or safety.
It meets various safety requirements, including European Category 4 safety standards – one of the most demanding in the world.
LazerSafe Managing Director RobAppleyard is the only non-European on the European hydraulic press and press brakes safety standards committee.
The company makes about 1500 safety control systems a year, which Mr Pignat said was about 7 per cent of the world market.
“We’re leading on the innovation side and there is still plenty of potential,” he said.