Circuit Corner - Issue 11
In a departure from my usual fare, I present a proposal for a warning sign for CNC devices.
CNC Warning Sign
Milling bits, knives, saw blades, lasers and other material handling tools all clearly have the ability to cause injury. In manual tools, however, these implements are generally stationary and predictable when not in use. This is not necessarily true of a CNC machine, and anything from a network start command to a bad data cable can cause the machine to spring to life, sometimes without warning. Tool paths can be unpredictable, and it may not always be obvious what is outside the range of the tool head. The slide table or gantry can be dangerous even in a small unit, with screw drives yielding high mechanical advantage, creating hazardous pinch points.
Now, while those dangers are certainly all manageable, they may not be obvious to an observer or other person not familiar with the machinery. These sorts of hazards generally call for warning signs. If nothing else, I enjoy decorating my labs and workspaces with appropriate warning signs.
It is for this reason that I drew this warning sign. It is difficult to pictographically represent the danger of a machine that may switch itself on and begin cutting in a way which is understandable across cultural boundaries. The image that I chose was that of an angry robot with a big circular saw blade for an arm menacing a stick man. By anthropomorphizing a machine which generally looks nothing like any living creature, I hoped to encourage relating to it in a way akin to a dangerous animal, unpredictable and tempermental, rather than as a simple power tool.
The image of a boxy robot has been present since at least the 1950s, and while I have no citations, depictions of such robots have emerged in the cultural products of most or all technological cultures.
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With the hope that this, or something very similar, may become standard or lead to the creation of a standard along these lines, I release this into the public domain.
