Integrated safety from Rockwell
07 June 2010
An Integrated Safety approach from Rockwell Automation, along with all its associated benefits, is now available for small to mid range applications thanks to new safety variants of the Allen-Bradley 1768 CompactLogix L43 and L45 Process Automation Controllers (PAC). Two new safety-capable, mid-size PACs can be used with POINT Guard I/O and CompactBlock Guard I/O.
Existing users of CompactLogix and ControlLogix will see the same RSLogix 5000 programming environment; the major addition being high integrity add-on instruction sets for safety routines. This means that programs can be simply and easily migrated from one unit to another.
With safety functionality (to SIL 3) embedded, users can simplify their automation and safety infrastructures using just the one communication infrastructure, one programming language and one master control unit. All the additional hardware, wiring, training and complexity associated with discrete safety systems is removed.
But this is not achieved by sacrificing core PAC capabilities. There are no imposed restrictions to language, motion or communications, and by using EtherNet/IP, users are still able to use the PACs for discrete control and motion applications – in the exactly the same way as their non-safety equivalents.
Contact Details and Archive...