PROFIsafe
The Difference Between PROFINET and PROFIsafe
loading… PROFINET and PROFIsafe have very similar names and were both created by PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI). Besides the similarities in origin and name, PROFINET and PROFIsafe are different technologies. PROFINET is an open industrial Ethernet standard that offers real-time data exchange while maintaining openness for flexible plant and machine concepts. Aside from the…
Read MorePROFIsafe: Functional Safety Over the Bus
loading… Functional safety (fail-safe) is the overall part of safety which aims to prevent hazards due to the incorrect functioning of industrial machinery. Traditionally, functional safety systems relied on separately wired circuits that are expensive to build, commission, and maintain. Nowadays, functional safety can be done over the fieldbus, shifting from safety in hard relays…
Read MorePROFIsafe over Wireless
loading… Nowadays, functional safety can be implemented over the bus shifting from safety in hard-wired relays to safety performed in logic. PROFIsafe is an additional software layer that provides functional safety over the bus in PROFINET networks. PROFIsafe ensures the integrity of failsafe signals transmitted between safety devices and a safety controller meeting the relevant…
Read MorePROFIsafe Key Frequently Asked Questions
loading… Safety systems protect equipment, people, and the environment. Traditionally, safety systems rely on separately wired circuits that are expensive to build, commission, and maintain. Nowadays, functional safety can be done over the bus shifting from safety in hard relays to safety in logic. With over 11 million installed nodes worldwide, PROFIsafe is the industry-leading…
Read MoreDoes PROFIsafe use up bandwidth?
loading… This is a question we received at a recent PROFINET training class. Does PROFIsafe use up bandwidth? The answer is: “NO”. For a full description of PROFIsafe, read the PROFIsafe System Description. For a short refresher, watch this video: PROFIsafe is used to exchange data between a safety device (F-Device; e.g. emergency-stop button) and…
Read MoreDrive it Safe with PROFINET
loading… PI has released a new animated video showing PROFIsafe in action over PROFINET. (PROFIsafe works over PROFIBUS, too.) It presents the iPar Server for storing safety (and other) parameters. And it presents it more succinctly than I did in a blog post a couple years ago: iPar Server. It also shows a brief look…
Read MoreSafety Discussion
loading… If you are not following some of the discussion groups on LinkedIn, you are missing out on some excellent advice. One in the Automation & Control Engineering group posed the question “Is Modbus suitable for emergency shutdown?” The short answer is no, of course not. But the discussion was interesting anyway. Naturally the topic…
Read MoreTwo Points for Safety
loading… Two points for safety – not two points for A safety. The latter might be a Super Bowl prognostication. (It’s not. But I always thought of safeties in American football as rare, but according to Wikipedia: since 1932, a safety has occurred about once a week.) The former (and the blog post title) is…
Read MoreSafety the Movie is Online
loading… In February of 2007, Safety the Movie debuted in Phoenix (post: Safety the Movie debuts in Phoenix). In the PROFIBUS and PROFINET world when we think functional safety, we think PROFIsafe. Yet PROFIsafe only ensures message delivery. An important role to be sure; the role of enabler. But there is more to functional safety…
Read MoreiPar Server
loading… The iPar Server is not an Internet tool for scoring your golf game; it’s a parameter repository to help in device replacement. One of the topics we don’t have time to cover in our PROFIBUS and PROFINET one-day training classes is the iPar Server. iPar is short for iParameter. It’s another example of the…
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