Sensor standardization can cut training time, simplify spares, and reduce engineering chaos. But single-brand purity can also create brittle factories, hidden pricing power, and dangerous sourcing dependence. Here is the practical middle path.
Most plants either overbuy safety sensors or keep none until a line is already dead. Here is a practical stocking rule for spare light curtains, photoeyes, cables, brackets, controllers, and custom machine guarding applications.
Most bad safety sensor purchases do not fail at installation. They fail inside the RFQ, where buyers ask for beam count, price, and delivery while forgetting stop time, PLr, reset logic, muting, diagnostics, documentation, and liability. Here are the 12 RFQ requirements I would refuse to compromise on.
Most articles soften the point. I will not. A safety light curtain is only as good as the machine stop time, the mounting distance, the restart logic, and the discipline of the people maintaining it. Everything else is marketing.