Machine makers are faced with the onerous task of achieving conformity with relevant national and international standards and legislation in order to sell their products in the global marketplace. In real terms, this means building a safety-related control system compliant with the appropriate ISO13849-1 Performance Level (PL) or IEC62061 Safety Integrity Level (SIL). http://www.pilz.com
For a safety gate to be PL rated, the control system must be designed such that a single component failure does not lead to the loss of the safety function. This can be achieved with the use of dual-channel safety devices and/or control systems, or by using a single-channel system with proven in-use data such as MTTFd (mean time to dangerous failure) or DC (diagnostic coverage).
Pioneering a cost-effective approach to PLd and safety-related control for the small and midsize machinery systems that make up the majority of the global automation market, Pilz has developed the safety gate monitoring module PNOZ s30. This article intends to explore the flexibility and wealth of functionality that the PSENcode safety gate switch paired with PNOZ s30 offers medium to small-sized OEMs building machinery with safety-related control. http://www.pilz.com