Contactless protection device

摘要

Contact-free protective device (10) for securing a dangerous region of a machine comprises an optical evaluation field (12) and a control and evaluation device (16) which, in addition to a securing operation in which contact in the evaluation field produces a warning or machine-stopping signal, allows a phased operation in which at least one contact in the evaluation field produces a release signal to release a machine cycle. For the securing operation and for the phased operation the same evaluation field is provided and the control and evaluation device is designed so that only part (h3 x b) of the evaluation field is correspondingly monitored for the securing operation and for the phased operation. Preferred Features: The evaluation field is defined by a light grid (14).