Which Standard Is the Key to Compliant Safety Controls?

Understanding IEC 61508, the “parent” functional safety standard, will help you better apply U.S. and European industry-specific standards. Today’s global economy entails ever-changing regulatory and industry safety standards. Manufacturers may get confused when applying them to product design, market demands, and getting products to market in increasingly tight windows. This confusion can lead to uncertainty, which can slow the product to market process and foster risk... Read More

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New Design of SIRIUS Safety Relays Offers Compact and Flexible Solutions

The new SIRIUS 3SK1 safety relays are ideally equipped for many locally limited safety applications in automated processes. It is not only easy and economical to expand these processes with new devices, you can also enhance and adapt them to future requirements. With a single basic unit, up to 10 mechanical or electronic sensors and up to 20 secure outputs can be controlled via input and output expansion modules that can be flexibly combined. The design of the SIRIUS 3SK1 is extremely... Read More

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How Safety PLCs Can Enhance Burner Management

Now that safety PLCs can be used for burner management systems, they offer a new alternative to cost-effective NFPA 86 compliance. Burner Management Systems (BMS) are among the most widespread process safety applications used in the chemical, petrochemical, and oil and gas industries. Traditionally there were not many firm standards regarding how to implement BMS, be they hardwired or using electronic components such as PLCs. ISA issued some standards a few years ago, but typically... Read More

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New Safety Evaluation Tool for Fast, Reliable Machine Assessments

TÜV-tested online database helps you assess and create compliance documentation using auto XML import/export for your Siemens products. The Safety Evaluation Tool (SET) for the IEC 62061 and ISO 13849-1 standards empowers machine designers to create standard-compliant documentation in a better way. This TÜV-tested online tool from the Safety Integrated program by Siemens supports the fast and reliable assessment of a machine’s safety functions. As a result, users are provided... Read More

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Lady Liberty’s New Fire and Safety Technology

Tower Elevator Systems’ newly installed rescue elevator, part of a $27-million Statue of Liberty renovation, makes the most of Safety PLC hardware, PROFIBUS Ethernet and the SIMATIC Comfort Panel HMI. One of the most-recognized structures on earth, the Statue of Liberty, recently underwent a $27 million renovation that brought the 19th century icon into the 21st century. Fire and safety features on the statue, inaugurated by President Grover Cleveland in 1886, were revamped... Read More

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PC-based Control Improves Tire Test Control

ASM and CTI improve tire testing and optimization system in rubber capital of the world with Siemens’ integrated PC-based real-time controls, networking, drives, interfaces and more. Most people don’t think about car tires until there’s a problem, but tires are a critical contributor for both safety and comfort. Forming rubber into products that can support more than a ton and absorb shock while rolling down rough highways at high speeds is a very challenging manufacturing... Read More

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Introducing the New SITOP Selectivity Module with Single Channel Signaling

Siemens Industry, Inc. introduces a line of SITOP PSE200U 24V DC Selectivity modules featuring single-channel signaling to detect and deactivate overloads or short circuits in individual circuits.  The new, four-channel devices offer three-color LED indicators per channel and enhance the current SITOP portfolio for reliable selective circuit protection. The status output of the modules provides channel specific status signaling.  A pulse-pause signal can be evaluated with a... Read More

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Understanding Safety Regulations and Standards

Global safety regulations vary widely.  Here are some pointers. Regulators around the globe agree on one thing: safety systems should use suitable technical equipment to keep potential hazards from both people and the environment without restricting industrial production. When accidents are minimized with minimal impact on output, productivity should rise. But that’s where the agreement ends. There are different concepts and requirements to guarantee safety in the various... Read More

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Wireless Networks and Machine Safety: Lessons Learned in a Non-Industrial Environment

Safe control of large concrete doors when elephants are in outside pen. Designing a system to control a myriad of large hydraulic gates at the Elephant Community Center at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park provides lessons learned in an application that involves hydraulics, solenoids, wireless, and safety PLCs. Making sure he doesn’t scare elephants isn’t normally in Barry Stringer’s list of challenges for the day. But when his team was designing a control system... Read More

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Critical Role of Documentation in Risk Assessments

Proper documentation helps drive success in designing, verifying and validating machine safety. There are very few people who raise their hand when asked the question “who here likes documentation?” Documentation can be seen as an impediment to progress and efficiency, not to mention innovation. But in the long run, proper documentation goes along with proper and efficient planning. When it is looked at as a record of an effective plan, it isn’t too hard to see that documentation... Read More

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