Rockwell Automation

May 20, 2005
Safety Scanner and I/O Help Manufacturers Integrate Safety and Standard Automation
The new Allen-Bradley DeviceNet Safety scanner and I/O from Rockwell Automation give manufacturers the opportunity to place safety and standard devices on a single network, simplifying control system design in complex applications such as those commonly found in the automotive, semiconductor, packaging, food and beverage industries. As a result of these new offerings, engineers who have traditionally struggled with sharing data between standard and safety automation systems can now easily integrate standard programmable controllers (PLC) and safety PLCs at the network level. “Integrating safety and standard controls on a single network speeds up system configuration, testing and commissioning and reduces the total cost of ownership,” said Lyle Masimore, Safety Business Manager, Rockwell Automation. “This also can improve the level of safety, as a system can more easily share data and respond intelligently to each type of fault."The new DeviceNet Safety products from Rockwell Automation meet the DeviceNet Safety specification that was published by the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association (ODVA) earlier this year. As a result, the devices are designed to help assure fail-safe communication between safety nodes such as safety programmable controllers, input/output blocks and the safety devices wired to them.The DeviceNet Safety Scanner connects directly to the Allen-Bradley GuardPLC, allowing the controller to send and receive information from a broad spectrum of both standard and safety devices on a single DeviceNet network, including I/O blocks, programmable controllers, and human-machine interfaces. Users can configure their DeviceNet Safety Scanner with Rockwell Software RSNetworx for DeviceNet, and connect up to a total of 63 DeviceNet devices to each scanner, 32 of which can be safety nodes.The new DeviceNet Safety Scanner and I/O modules are TUV-certified for up to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 and Category 4 and feature configurable solid-state outputs, making them ideal for highly distributed applications. Each I/O module is designed to perform both safety and standard functions on the same block and can monitor all of the safety circuits, detecting failures at the I/O block and field wiring levels. This eliminates the requirement that failure detections be written into the controllers, while offloading the diagnostics from the controller to the I/O block.
  • The 1791DS-IB12 I/O module offers 12 safe inputs and 4 configurable standard outputs;

  • The 1791DS-IB8XOB8 module has 8 safe inputs, eight safe solid-state outputs, and 4 configurable standard outputs;

  • The 1791DS-IB4XOW4 module has 4 safe inputs, 4 replaceable safe relay outputs, and 4 configurable standard outputs.
The DeviceNet Safety Scanner and DeviceNet Safety I/O modules will be available in June.