Glossary · Systems engineering and MBSE
Shared safety zone
In machine safety and systems engineering, a shared safety zone is a hazardous or protected area whose safety depends on coordinated behavior across multiple machines or controls. No single machine can make the zone safe on its own.
- Integrated systems
- Functional safety
In one sentence
A shared safety zone is an area whose safety depends on several machines or controls acting together, so its protection must be designed at system level.
Example
Two robots and a conveyor serve one fenced cell; opening the cell door must stop all three, and the zone may only be released for restart when every machine reports its safe state.
How it applies
- Machine safety: Define the zone, the machines that act in it and the combined safety functions: stop of all hazardous movements, restart conditions, access rules. See safety zoning.
- Integrated systems: Coordination runs over interfaces between controllers. Its timing and fault behavior must be specified and verified, because a lost signal can leave one machine running in an occupied zone.
- Responsibility: Assign one owner for the zone as a whole, even when its machines come from different suppliers.
- Technical documentation: Instructions must describe the zone as one area: which emergency stop devices act on it, who may enter, how the zone is released. Supplier manuals describe only their own machine's part.
Shared safety zone vs. hazardous zone
A hazardous zone is any space in which a person is exposed to a hazard. A shared safety zone is a hazardous or protected area whose protection depends on several machines or controls acting together, which creates interaction hazards if coordination fails.