Greetings all,

If I am still allowed, after my little brain fart earlier today (see
post below), I have a serious question for the group.

I have been asked by a customer to assist them in prototyping a dump
hopper for their product, approx. 2500 lb boxes of plastic pellets.
My questions regard the use of linear actuators and light curtains. I
would appreciate any basic information anyone can provide, links to web
sites would be fine provided it is not terribly technical. I have looked at
a couple of sites dealing with the light curtains and got a headache trying
to go threw their pdf files.
The linear actuators are very new to me, all I really think I know is that
they are basically electric pistons. Is that a fair assumption? The
customer mentioned using pneumatics, but I suggested the actuators as a
cheaper/easier solution. No hoses to burst, fluid to check the level of,
pumps to burn out/run over etc. This equipment will have to be extremely
idiot/gorilla proof, due to the presence of forklifts and, shall we say,
some of the duller tools in the shed, hence the concerns for the pneumatics.
As for the light curtains, I will be using them to make sure the forklift
is out of the way.

Thanks in advance for any and all input,
Jim