Opensafety protocol cleared for international standardisation
Opensafety, the fieldbus-independent protocol, has been tested according to IEC 61784-3 FSCP 13 and approved by national IEC committees representing 27 countries including China, the USA and Germany. Opensafety has therefore been released for international standardisation.Because Opensafety is bus-independent, it is said to be suitable for use with all fieldbus or industrial Ethernet systems. At the HMI 2010 trade fair, Opensafety was presented in applications using some of the most popular industrial Ethernet protocols: Sercos III, Modbus TCP, Ethernet/IP and Powerlink. For the first time, users of an industrial Ethernet system other than Powerlink now also have a complete, certified and open safety system available to them. Opensafety has been certified by TÜV Rheinland and TÜV Süd for SIL 3 applications.
Stefan Schoenegger, the open automation business unit manager at B&R, comments: "End customers have been requesting a uniform and manufacturer-independent standard for years, and Opensafety is the response to those requests. It allows increases in productivity that are currently not possible with other safety protocols."
For more information, visit www.open-safety.org
