Indication lamps

[Knobhead]

Over the years I’ve worked in several major industries and non seem to have a standard for indication lights for machinery.

The chemical industry had

• Red, drive running or valve open
• Green, drive stopped or valve closed
• Amber, drive starting or valve changing position.

The iron industry had

• Green, drive running or valve open
• Red, drive stopped or valve closed
• Amber, drive starting or valve changing position.

There’s got to be a standard somewhere.

 

[johnboy6083]

i work in the water industry at the mo, and its green for drive running, pump available or valve open. Red is for e-stop operated, drive stopped, valve closed.
Amber is for drive fault or PLC fault. All chemcical dosing systems have red beacons on the pump station doors, and on top of the panels.

 

[Guest123]

BMS control systems are opposite Tony, green is boiler/pump/fan running, red is boiler/pump/fan stopped & amber indicates a fault condition.

I can see where it would get confusing for a spark not fixed to one area.

 

[netblindpaul]

There is an international standard, in fact there are several.
Your first port of call is BS EN 60204-1 (current amendment).
There are also BS, EN, ISO & IEC standards for several other pictographic and other "information" symbols.
However Tony they are "new" standards.
In the past there were a plethora of national and industry standards.
IF the machine has EN954 e-stops then it should have international standard indication for other aspects.
This has been around since about 1988 (ish) AFAIK.
Well I was working to what is now current then anyway!

 

[silva.foxx]

At the start of my sentence I was working as a site-services eng. at a frozen food manufacture. Under my care was two ammonia refrigeration plants.

I thought about the lamp colours one day and decided to swap the red and green lamp lenses about. So when frick#1 ran the control panel indicated compressor running with a red lens to warn of 'Danger - compressor under motive power' sort of styley! Done it for the other two.

Later in the day, my gaffer and I passed this control room and he glimpses all three comprssors showing red. You could here all three running. The :-------: panicked! Then when I pointed out that the plant was running he had a right pop at me and demanded I put the lenses back. He stated that we see red as an alarm. I pointed out that when they originally showed red, as in compressor has stopped, as in compressor has stopped because it is not required, as in compressor is not at fault but at rest, then why should we see that as an alarm? I said I'd compromise on red for both :fuk2:

We agreed to disagree. Then I avoided the piece of :001_9898: for the rest of the day. He gave me a 'toolbox talk' one day on composure - I'm laid back - he demonstrated 'not panicking' again the next day by climbing unaided 20-feet up on to a surge drum to check that no-one had closed the suction valve during a plant fault. Who the hell would climb all the way up there? (Only him, probably)

.

 

[Marvo]

Yep, there's never been a standard as far as I know for indicator lamps on panels. I suppose as long as they're correctly labeled it's fine, you also just get familiar with the arrangements in different plant-rooms after a while.

 

[Knobhead]

Each industry / company has it’s standards. Both the main places I worked had started automation in the 1930’s. Each set off down a different road. It was just unfortunate I chose to move from one to the other.

There may be standards set, but you try to convince the plant operator that the lamps he’s been looking at for the last 30 years are wrong! Change them and there would be so many ups that you’ll soon be changing them back. Probably wiping your asre 3” down from your shoulder blades.

The reason I asked the question is due to an American friend moving to a new company, he went in to head time as well!

 

[Engineer54]

I was brought up in my original industry with Green = Running/Go/On, Red = Stop/Off, Amber = Ready . Basically the traffic light/signaling logic, as the main three...
But we had a multitude of other colours on the main control panels and out panels for Correct sequence, Out of sequence, Line ready, Jammed Line, and so on.

The MV distribution switchboards however was the complete opposite, in that RED = On and Green = Off, Amber or White =Tripped. That is still the system of indicative lights on MV switchboards to this day....

The problem always arises when different manufacturers, often from different countries have different or opposite colours for there indications... On the bigger projects that can be a real pain in the butt, and always needs to be addressed to bring them all into line. Project specifications often tend to miss stipulating indicative panel colours required, or will stipulate for certain items of plant and miss them on others....

 

[netblindpaul]

There is & should be no need to change existing indicators, however from around 1994 on they should be common to international standards which were adopted by the UK at around this time.
If they are not to "international" standards then it is doubtful that the machines comply with PUWER98.

Sound familiar?...

 

[Knobhead]

They may not conform to PUWER98, if they don’t conform to Joe you may as well p**s in the wind.
Regulations are one thing, years of dogged conformity are an other.
Sorry

 

[silva.foxx]

Moeller - Electrically critical equipment of machines - Colours of indicator lights and their meanings