How should safety interlocks be designed?

Safety interlocks are critical components in flame effects operations to ensure audience safety and prevent accidents during performances. Designing safety interlocks to be fail-safe means that if there is a failure in the system or an unexpected condition arises, the system defaults to a safe state. This ensures that the flame effects are disabled or shut down in scenarios where they could create a hazard, such as equipment malfunction or human error.

Fail-safe designs prioritize safety by preventing scenarios where a malfunction could lead to dangerous outcomes. In contrast, other design concepts like fail-open or fail-permissive do not necessarily guarantee safety; they may allow systems to remain operational under certain failure conditions, which could increase risk. Thus, the fail-safe design is essential in protecting both the performers and the audience during flame effects presentations, making it the preferred choice in accordance with the NFPA 160 standards.