It has been my experience that E-Stop buttons are red. An operators panel may have 2,3,4,5... E-Stops labeled for differant areas of a process line. Is there a standard or can we choose? Differant colors for differant areas of a process line.

 

In my opinion, the button should be red to signify Emergence. The legend plate identifying each E-Stop can be color-coded to any standard. I would use colors other than red, green, and yellow. These should be used to identify function. All colored buttons should also be labeled as to their function. This re-enforces the color-coding scheme and helps to eliminate any problems with color blindness.

Colors use to identify systems should be pastel (light) colors as to distinguish them from functional color-coding.

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E-stop buttons have to be red mushroom head-type switches, on a yellow background. Refer to NFPA 79 Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery Section 13.2.3. The rest of Section 13 tells what colors are permissable or recommended for the other types of button on your system. OSHA 1910.144 also requires red for all E-stop buttons.

What some people do to show the zone of protection for each e-stop circuit is place a laminated floorplan drawing that has been color coded to indicate what area of the line any button will affect above each individual e-stop button.

Cheers,
Steve

> It has been my experience that E-Stop buttons are red. An operators panel may have 2,3,4,5... E-Stops labeled for differant areas of a process line. Is there a standard or can we choose? Differant colors for differant areas of a process line.

 

We cant choose any color for ES. The reason is all over the world red is the standard color. The reason for the red chosen is it is clearly visible from the distance. So you cant use any other color.