In the field of industrial automation, the interconnection of safety systems has always been the focus of the industry.
Recently, Pilz officially released the second-generation secure Ethernet connection function block (SEC2), which builds a “safety bridge” between the PSS4000 automation system and the PNOZmulti safety control system, realizing collaborative linkage between different safety systems and greatly expanding the application scenarios of the full control system.
“Small upgrade” brings “big leap”
SEC2 (Safety Ethernet Connection2) function block is in the first generation PSS
A comprehensive upgrade based on the safe communication between the 3000 system and the PNOZmulti system. It is suitable for the safe communication between the PSS 4000 automation system and the PNOZmulti safety control system. It has obtained TUV certification and can reach the highest safety level of ISO 13849 PL e/IEC 61508 SIL 3.
To put it simply, SEC2 is like a “security translator”, allowing PSS4000 and PNOZmulti, two security systems that originally “spoke in their own words,” to exchange security information without barriers and achieve cross-system security linkage control.
Two major pain points in industry applications
In actual applications, there are usually two modes to choose from for the deployment of security systems, but each mode has “shortcomings”. Take the currently popular unmanned warehousing industry as an example:
Pain point one: “big pot” style centralized control.
The overall system of the storage area and the safety control of all AGV trolleys in the area are all undertaken by a safety PLC, and the trolley part uses IO substations to send safety signals.
Although such a solution is easy to deploy, once the PLC fails, it will cause all equipment in the entire warehousing area to shut down, affecting the overall system availability.
What’s even more troublesome is that the safety control logic of the trolley body and the safety control logic of the entire warehousing area are all “squeezed” into one PLC. For large-scale warehousing projects with hundreds or even thousands of trolleys, program maintenance will be extremely complicated.
Pain Point 2: “Each of you” type of separated control.
The overall system of the storage area is realized by a set of safety PLC, and the safety of the AGV car is realized by other safety controllers.
The feature of this solution is that the car safety system is separated from the warehousing safety system, which improves the usability of the system. However, problems also arise. If the wireless communication between the two independent systems does not have a high security level, the safety function of the internal AGV car triggered by the warehousing safety system to stop it will not meet the standard requirements, and it will be useless.
SEC2 cleverly solves the problem: from “one loses, everyone loses” to “each performs its own duties”
The release of the secure Ethernet connection function block (SEC2) perfectly solves the above two major pain points.
Users use the PSS 4000 safety system to monitor safety status such as emergency stops, safety doors, and light curtains in the overall warehousing area, and use the small PNOZmulti safety system in AGVs to monitor safety statuses such as car emergency stops, scanners, speeds, and servo STO.
The highest level of secure communication can be achieved using the SEC2 function block and wireless routing between the two, and any system failure will not affect the operation of the overall system.
In addition, since the SEC2 function is implemented based on the bottom layer of Modbus TCP, it is not affected by network communication equipment, and can be used by network equipment with wired, wireless, optical fiber and other functions.
The launch of the SEC2 function block marks a new stage in industrial safety communication from “single system closed loop” to “multi-system collaboration”. It solves the problem of wireless high-reliability communication between distributed safety systems and provides solid technical support for the flexible deployment of smart manufacturing, smart logistics and other scenarios.
