Integrated Safety
Rockwell Automation Integrated Safety with Motion Control
Over the past decade safety has become a high priority on the plant floor, and this is great to hear. Why? It means that employers want you to go home at night healthy and safe. These days it seems like you can't move without tripping a safety circuit on a machine and this has been changing the way we think about safety. With the advent of safety over Ethernet, we can monitor the safety system, make decisions, and notify people of problems faster than ever before. There is even an effort to include Collaborative Safety (where a person and a machine meet) as a focus moving forward to increase up-time.
When it comes to safety and Motion Control products, Rockwell’s Safety Servo Drive products are designed to help minimize downtime and reduce energy and production waste, while helping improve machine operating efficiencies. The Kinetix® 300, 350, 5500 and 5700 all feature built-in safety functionality. With Safe Torque-Off, a drive output is disabled to remove motor torque without removing power from the entire machine. The Kinetix® 5500 and 5700 also allow for the configuration of safety over Ethernet when a safety controller is present. This helps reduce panel wiring and increases the diagnostics into your safety application.
The Kinetix® 5700 advanced safety tools use integrated drive safety functions, or instructions, to help your system meet specific performance criteria. When integrated into control and motion systems, pre-certified safety functions can help companies save on project costs and improve overall system reliability. The list below shows some of the advanced safety features on the Kinetix® 5700.
- Safe Stop 1 (SS1) - Initiates and monitors the motor deceleration rate within set limits to stop the motor and initiates the STO function when the motor speed is below a specified limit.
- Safe Stop 2 (SS2) - Initiates and monitors the motor deceleration rate within set limits to stop the motor and initiates the Safe Operating Stop function when the motor speed is below a specified limit.
- Safe Operating Speed (SOS) - Prevents the motor from deviating more than a defined amount from the stopped position. The drive provides energy to the motor to enable it to resist external forces.
- Safely Limited Speed (SLS) - Prevents the motor from exceeding the specified speed limit.
- Safely Limited Position (SLP) - Prevents the motor shaft from exceeding the specified position limit(s).
- Safe Direction (SDI) - Prevents the motor shaft from moving in the unintended direction.
- Safe Brake Control (SBC) - Provides a safe output signals to control an external brake. The SBC function is coordinated with the STO function.
Please keep in mind that a Safety Risk Assessment of the machine should be performed on any machine where people interact.
The most complicated part of safety is understanding all the rules and regulations that may apply to you and your machine. Luckily there are publication that summarize these standards (Rockwell Automations Machinery SafeBook 5) and services to help you along with this process. Just ask your Revere Electric Account manager or our Safety Specialists for more information on any safety related products or services.
