Machinery designers are under increasing pressure to develop control systems that are faster to design, faster to build, offer greater flexibility, precision and productivity improvements, whilst reducing down-time and maintenance. Above all this, they must provide assurance of safety – conforming to international standards and rules. Ultimately, the machine’s safety system should not hinder operation or access to the machine.
To achieve this successfully, the safety system needs to integrate seamlessly into the overall machine control strategy.
Omron’s Sysmac automation platform now integrates the safety solution within the ‘one connection’ and ‘one software’ concept. One connection is realised through the use of Safety over EtherCAT – FSoE – protocol. The one software is achieved by using the Sysmac Studio for configuration, programming and maintenance, ensuring that the safety status information is available instantly throughout the whole system, thus eliminating troubleshooting and vastly reducing down-time.
The NX safety system consists of safety controller and safety I/O units. Both the safety controller and safety I/O can be freely distributed in any I/O rack throughout the network, mixing them in any combination with standard NX I/O, with the programming fully integrated into the Sysmac Studio project, such that any existing certified programs can be reused, reducing development time and the amount of verification work.
- The safety controller meets Category 4, PLe according to the EN ISO 13849-1 and SIL3 according to the IEC 61508.
- Up to eight safety input points per unit.
- Safety Function Blocks conforming with IEC 61131-3 standard programming.
- PLCopen Function Blocks for safety.
- Integration in one software, Sysmac Studio.
Omron Electronics www.industrial.omron.co.uk
T: 01908 258 253
