Assess the complete robot cell and molten-metal process before commissioning—not just the robot arm. Map routine and non-routine work, identify how people could be exposed to movement, heat, spills, or splashes, and verify that safeguards work during faults, recovery, and restart. ISO 10218:2025 is a useful reference for robot and cell safety, but both parts explicitly exclude dangerous loads such as molten metals, so a separate, application-specific process assessment is essential.
What the assessment needs to cover
A foundry robot is part of an integrated work system. The assessment should cover the robot, its tooling and load, the pouring process, surrounding equipment, people’s tasks, and every way the system can be accessed or commanded. Consider normal production as well as setup, troubleshooting, maintenance, recovery, and other foreseeable abnormal conditions.
This article provides a planning framework, not a site-specific risk assessment, engineering design, legal opinion, or approval to commission. The actual hazards and required controls depend on the installation, process, work practices, and jurisdiction. Have a qualified integrator and the workplace safety team assess and validate the actual cell.
How to assess a robotic foundry application
1. Define the full system and intended work
Map the robot cell and the process around it. Include the robot and controller, ladle or other tooling, furnace, pouring point, molds, nearby machines, access points, walkways, operator and maintenance stations, and any interface that can command, stop, reset, or restart the process.
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Record the intended tasks, operating modes, operating limits, and foreseeable misuse. Identify who performs each task and who else might enter the area, including contractors and visitors. Include the system’s interfaces with other equipment; a hazard can arise from the sequence or interaction of machines, not only from the robot’s motion.
2. Walk through every task and abnormal state
Review the work with operators, maintenance staff, the integrator, and EHS or safety personnel. OSHA’s technical manual says thorough risk assessments conducted with workers are critical for safety. Do not limit the review to the production cycle: OSHA notes that robot accidents often occur during programming, maintenance, testing, setup, and adjustment, when a worker may be inside the work envelope.
- Teaching, programming, setup, inspection, cleaning, and adjustment.
- Troubleshooting, jam clearing, maintenance, and testing.
- Recovery after a stop, power interruption, process fault, or interrupted cycle.
- Contractor or visitor access, including work occurring while the cell is stopped.
For each task, ask what happens if a sensor, interlock, communication link, or process step fails. Examine whether a reset, switch adjustment, or other control action could cause motion or resume pouring while someone is in the hazard area.
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3. Identify hazards where people and process can interact
Consider the combined hazards for each task, not just one hazard at a time. The review may include:
- Robot impact, crushing, trapping, and reach into areas where people work.
- Ladle swing, load movement, pinch points, and the movement of tooling or nearby equipment.
- Molten-metal leakage, spills, splashes, or ejection from a mold or process step.
- Radiant heat, hot surfaces, ignition, and clothing involvement.
- Process or mold failure, unexpected motion, and people entering the operating envelope.
Moisture and contamination can be process-specific concerns; evaluate them with qualified foundry expertise rather than assuming a generic safeguard addresses them. Consider where a person could be during normal work and foreseeable recovery or maintenance—not only where the person is expected to stand during production.
4. Record exposure and evaluate risk
For each task and hazard, document who could be harmed, how they could be exposed, the potential severity, the basis for judging likelihood or exposure, existing controls, and remaining risk. State assumptions and uncertainties rather than treating an incident example or a generic checklist as a prediction for this installation.
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Use the record to identify where additional safeguards or changes to the process are needed. An assessment document alone does not ensure worker protection; OSHA’s technical manual cautions that the assessment must be implemented through effective controls and work practices.
5. Select and verify safeguards for the actual cell
Choose safeguards against the hazards and access routes identified in the assessment. Evaluate each proposed control against the full hazard envelope and the actual sequence of operation, stopping behavior, faults, and recovery cases. Check whether the control can be verified and maintained, and whether it protects operators, maintenance staff, contractors, and visitors during the tasks they actually perform.
- Does it address setup, troubleshooting, maintenance, and recovery as well as routine production?
- Can people reach the robot, ladle, or molten-metal hazard area without the risk being detected or controlled?
- What happens when a fault or stop occurs, and what conditions must be met before motion or pouring can resume?
- Can the safety team verify the control’s function on the installed system and keep it effective over time?
- What residual risk remains for each exposed group?
Define who may reset or restart the system, from where, and how the system assures that affected people are clear. Written procedures, training, and supervision support safeguards; they do not replace effective engineering controls. PPE is also a supporting layer, not a way to make an unsafe cell safe.
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6. Document, commission, and revisit
Before production release, document the assessment, selected controls, and residual risk. Verify safeguard functions and safe recovery behavior on the actual installation, train affected workers, and make operating and maintenance instructions clear. Reassess when robot motion, tooling, ladle capacity, process, software, access, safeguarding, or work practices change, and after an incident or near miss.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why restart and recovery deserve special attention
An OSHA investigation record dated February 15, 1996 describes a fatal incident involving a robotic aluminum pourer. After the operation stopped, an escort adjusted a switch about 20 feet away; the pour restarted while a visitor was inside the ladle envelope. The visitor was pinned against a mold by an approximately 150-pound ladle containing aluminum at about 1,400°F.
The event illustrates why the assessment must examine who can adjust or reset controls, where they can do so from, whether people can be inside the hazard area during a stop, and how the system prevents an unexpected restart. A stopped operation is not necessarily a safe condition if a control action can resume it while someone remains exposed.
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What incident records do—and do not—show
Other OSHA foundry records illustrate molten-metal process hazards but are not robotic-cell incidents. A January 31, 2017 event record describes molten steel at 2,800°F splashing from a mold during pouring; three employees suffered burns and one was hospitalized for 40 days. An October 29, 2019 record describes a copper-foundry worker hospitalized after molten metal spilled from a mold and ran down his leg.
These examples establish that severe exposure can occur; they do not measure how often an injury happens or predict the probability of injury at another facility. The available records do not provide a suitable statistic for the injury rate or risk probability of deploying robots near molten metal.
How ISO 10218:2025 applies—and where it stops
ISO 10218-1:2025, edition 3, addresses industrial robots as machines. ISO 10218-2:2025, edition 2, addresses integration and the lifecycle of industrial robot applications and cells, including commissioning, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. Both were published in February 2025, and both explicitly exclude handling dangerous loads such as molten metals.
Use relevant robot and machinery safety requirements for the parts of the application they address, but do not treat either standard as a complete assessment of the foundry process or the molten-metal hazard. A competent, application-specific assessment is still needed for the integrated installation.
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Jurisdiction and PPE considerations
OSHA states that there are currently no specific OSHA standards for the robotics industry; its robotics page lists consensus standards as guidance, not as OSHA regulations. This does not remove an employer’s obligation to identify and meet requirements that apply to its worksite. Applicable legal duties, adopted standards, and conformity steps depend on the jurisdiction and the actual machine and process. OSHA technical-manual references may include older editions, so distinguish the edition cited from a current legal determination.
Assess clothing and body protection for the specific splash and extreme-heat tasks identified. OSHA foundry citation materials describe aluminized suits and long-sleeved arm protection for identified splash-exposed work, but that does not establish a garment’s suitability or certification for another task. Select PPE through the site’s hazard assessment; protective clothing does not control robot motion, prevent unexpected restart, or replace safeguarding.
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