Resolving social challenges through social rulemaking

IDEC has been involved in the formation of social rules for many years, through active participation in international standardization activities.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, IDEC expanded its market by mainly by utilizing existing rules. Since the 1990s, IDEC has actively participated in technical committees of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), proposing and promoting international safety standards in response to new technological developments in the global society. IDEC has been active in shaping the rules by proposing and promoting the development of international safety standards.

Since 2017, we have focused on activities to create rules based on new ways of thinking, such as Vision Zero and well-being, to achieve our purpose: “Create the optimal environment for humans and machines, and achieve safety, ANSHIN, and well-being for people around the world.”
We have defined our international standardization activities in the following three categories, and have established a dedicated unit, the International Standardization and Collaborative Safety Department, within our head office to promote a variety of activities.

Among the three categories, we are particularly focusing on “strategic creative” and “strategic proactive” international standardization activities, which we advocate to the world with Japanese leadership. We are also aiming to achieve further growth of our business through continuous human resources development through OJT (on-the-job training).

IEC standardization activitie

As a Japanese representative at the Advisory Committee on Safety (IEC ACOS), one of the seven technical advisory committees of the IEC, IDEC introduced Collaborative Safety (Safety 2.0) and proposed the need to develop an IEC Guide on Collaborative Safety. Consequently, the development of the IEC Guide was approved in 2022, and it is expected to be officially published in the near future following voting by each national committee.

Through its participation in the development of international standards, IDEC has made a significant contribution to the development of standards for three position enabling switches, for which IDEC holds over a 90% share of the global market, and to the revision of standards for emergency-stop switches.

ISO standardization activities

IDEC has been participating in the working group for the technical committee on robot safety, where it has contributed to the development of the ISO10218 series of international standards relating to the safety of various industrial robots (including collaborative robots) and their related systems.

We have also participated in the working group of the technical committee on the safety of automated guided vehicles (AGVs, AMRs, and AGFs, etc.), which have become increasingly common in recent years, and have contributed to the development of ISO 3691-4, the international safety standard for such technologies.

<Case Studies>

(1) Three-position enabling switch

As industrial robots became more widespread, there had been numerous of accidents during robot teaching, and the need for new safety devices was being discussed by the Standards Committee for Robot (Robotic Industries Association at that time). IDEC obtained this information at an early stage, and in 1997 became the first company in Japan to commercialize the three-position enabling switch.
Later, IDEC took a leading role in contributing to the development of new international standards from the proposal stages. The IEC standard (IEC60947-5- 8) incorporating safety and ease-of-use requirements was published in 2006. We also contributed to the development of the ISO standard for industrial robots (ISO 10218-1), and the ISO standard incorporating the requirement for a three-position enabling switch to be installed in teaching device was published in 2006.
As a result, IDEC has contributed to ensuring safety during robot teaching around the world. Since the international standard was issued, overseas sales have also grown significantly, contributing to improving safety, ANSHIN and well-being in a wide range of fields, including production sites and in the construction industry.

(2) Emergency-stop switch

Since first participating in an IEC working group in 2003, IDEC has continued to take part for more than 20 years, contributing actively to the development and revision of related international standards.
Since 2013, IDEC has been contributing to the revision of the IEC standard (IEC60947-5-5) as the project leader in an international standard revision project for emergency-stop switches, composed of global companies in the control equipment industry.
We also have a lineup of products utilizing IDEC’s proprietary “safety potential structure,” with a safety level that exceeds the requirements specified in the standard, and are driving their social implementation to support further improvements of safety in various workplaces.