EZ-SCREEN LP Safety Light Curtain

Overview

The Banner EZ-SCREEN LP (Low Profile) is Banner Engineering's flagship safety light curtain for machine tool, packaging, and assembly press applications requiring hand and finger detection. At 14 mm minimum object sensitivity with response times of 5–10 ms, the EZ-SCREEN LP meets IEC 61496-1 Type 4 and IEC 62061 SIL 3 — the highest safety levels for optoelectronic safety devices — making it suitable for press brakes, punch presses, injection moulding machines, and any application where a finger between two beams constitutes the minimum hazardous intrusion.

Banner's EZ-SCREEN distinguishes itself with tool-free DIP-switch configuration on the emitter and receiver heads: fixed blanking zones, cascading configuration, and external device monitoring (EDM) are all set by physical switches rather than proprietary software — eliminating laptop dependency during installation. LED beam alignment indicators on each bar face (green = aligned, red = misaligned) guide installation without a separate alignment tool. Once aligned, each beam's status can be read by the optional IO-Link port for smart diagnostics: predictive contamination warnings, beam-by-beam status, and preventive maintenance scheduling without additional sensor hardware.

Cascading allows up to three pairs of EZ-SCREEN LP emitter/receiver sets to share a single pair of OSSD outputs to the safety relay — enabling multi-zone coverage (e.g., both sides of a conveyor feed station) without requiring additional safety relay channels per curtain. Integrated muting lamp outputs and muting sensor inputs support 2- or 4-sensor muting configurations for palletising and depalletising applications where product must pass through the protective field.

Key Features

• 14 mm Finger Detection — Type 4 Certified — 14 mm beam spacing and optic diameter meets IEC 61496-2 Type 4 finger-detection requirements. Paired with a 5 ms response time, the minimum safety distance (per ISO 13855 hand approach at 2000 mm/s) is typically 100–160 mm — significantly shorter than Type 2 curtains at 30 mm resolution, enabling closer guarding and smaller machine footprints.
• Tool-Free DIP Configuration — DIP switches on the emitter and receiver heads configure: cascading master/slave, fixed blanking zones (for machine fixtures passing through the field), external device monitoring (EDM/MPCE), restart interlock mode, and muting lamp output polarity — all without a laptop, USB cable, or proprietary configuration software. Critical for maintenance personnel who need to reconfigure in the field.
• IO-Link v1.1 — Predictive Diagnostics — The IO-Link port transmits per-beam opacity data, contamination percentage, alignment quality, and ambient light interference levels to the PLC or IO-Link master. This enables the maintenance department to schedule lens cleaning before a curtain trips due to contamination — eliminating unplanned downtime. The OSSD safety outputs remain independent of IO-Link; loss of IO-Link communication does not affect safety function.
• Cascading + Integrated Muting — Up to three EZ-SCREEN LP pairs cascade in series, sharing one OSSD output pair — reducing safety relay channel count for multi-zone guarding. Built-in muting inputs accept standard 24 V DC muting sensors for 2- or 4-sensor muting sequences, with an onboard muting status lamp output (no separate relay needed for the muting indicator lamp required by OSHA 1910.217 and ISO 11161).

Technical Specifications

Application Areas

• Press brakes and punch presses — frontal hand guarding
• Injection moulding machine operator side guarding
• Robot cell entry/exit point guarding
• Palletiser/depalletiser pallet entry with muting
• Conveyor transfer point pedestrian crossing detection
• Woodworking machinery operator zone protection