TopTier is the only US palletizer company that has all safety and electrical systems evaluated by an internationally recognized third party compliance assurance organization. TUV SUD America electrical and safety compliance assurance confirms that all TopTier electrical and safety components, their application, and overall systems designs meet jurisdictional requirements for installation at any location.

Standard design TopTier equipment is compliant anywhere in North America. TopTier CE certified equipment can be installed in countries requiring a CE mark or in other international jurisdictions. 

TopTier's comprehensive approach to safety designed into each model is well beyond the offerings of any US competitor. TopTier advises all palletizer purchasers to compare TopTier standard features with the most option laden offering of a competitor. A competitor’s best will still fall short of our standard designs. 

Category III safety design is standard for all TopTier models, and is the foundation of our safety systems. Cat III simply requires that hazards are protected by safety rated monitored protection from the hazard. The basic method used to achieve Cat III for palletizers is to enclose hazards inside a safety cage. A safety cage has been an integral component of TopTier designs for a decade, while safety cages have recently become retrofitted by many TopTier competitors. Such add-on capabilities are improvements for these competitors, but fall short of TopTier’s integrated approach to safety as outlined below.  

Safety Cage Design
The initial safety system of TopTier's layered approach to safety is the integrated safety cage design. All major components including infeed systems, palletizer frames, stretch wrap cages, and tie-sheet inserters are designed as an integral safety cage system with large access doors to facilitate ease of use.  

The combination of frame members with safety monitored doors and light curtain protection of load exit creates a safety cage where nearly all hazards are internal to the cage. Any breach of the cage by opening a door or breaking the load exit light curtain beams immediately drops power outside the control panel and purges retained pneumatic energy.  

Access Door System
TopTier's door design is an example of TopTier's value added comprehensive safety approach. Access doors are monitored by a Banner Pico Guard Fiber Optic system where pulsating light signals make defeating the safety system impossible.* In addition to the door monitoring system suitable for Cat IV rating, TopTier mounts the sensor elements in a manner that breaks the signal within a quarter turn of the latch so that power drop occurs before the doors can be opened. A secondary feature of the design requires the doors to be properly closed and fully latched before the safety circuit automatically re-engages. Inadvertent closing of a door by gravity or a bump cannot close the safety circuit.  

Load Exit Light Curtain
The 72" tall light curtains are mounted a distance away from any hazards at the load exit so that there is adequate reaction time for safe conditions to be established between the beam being broken and an operator actually engaging a hazard.  

Light curtain controls provide for muting of the curtain so that the curtain can be disengaged while a load exits under machine control. Once adequate time has expired for load exit the curtain automatically re-engages. If for some reason such as a defective pallet the load does not properly exit and the light curtain re-engages with the load still breaking the beam, there are safe methods to defeat the light curtain and facilitate load exit without compromising operator safety. 

Redundant Hoist Fall Protection
The hoist is the most hazardous element of any palletizer. All palletizers have a hoist element for lifting either loads, rows, or layers. Typically the hoist can raise above human height allowing a operator who enters the machine to be situated under the hoist. TopTier safety systems include redundant hoist locking anytime the e-stop circuit engages either by hitting an e-stop button or breaching the safety cage.  

The hoist is locked at its current elevation by a spring applied hoist motor fail safe brake, providing one level of hoist fall protection. Since death or serious injury could result if the hoist brake failed, TopTier designs include redundant mechanical latches that engage when the e-stop circuit engages. Several palletizer manufacturers provide mechanical latches that must be manually inserted. Safety thereby becomes dependent on operators following procedures. Also, manually applied mechanical latches are typically only applicable at a few specified levels whereas TopTier's redundant latch system engages at the exact current level of the hoist.

TopTier Safety Standard Design FeaturesCategory III safety enclosure design
Redundant automatic mechanical latches to protect from hoist fall
72" light curtain spaced to accommodate reaction time from hazard at the load exit
Third party compliance assurance by TUV SUD
Designed to UL-508, NFPA 79, OSHA, CSA and Ontario Safety requirements and meets industries highest accepted safety norms as defined by EN 1200-1, EN 12100-2, EN 983 and EN 60204-1

The above standard features can be augmented by additional safety elements based on customer requests:
Category IV is available for all models
Controlled entry where safe conditions are confirmed prior to allowing any door to open. The light curtain remains an opening that remains accessible regardless of the controlled entry upgrades
Additional guarding for the pallet dispenser in the form or doors, light curtains or other devices that protect operators from pallet dispensing motions and or empty pallet stack tip over.  

*Exit door installed on Stacker model