Safety muting: efficient and economical

Muting involves the controlled disabling of the protective function of a non-contact safety device such as a light curtain or light curtain. Muting is used in numerous tasks in intralogistics. Thanks to muting, automatic material transport is possible in machines located inside a safety fence or inside another safety device with mechanical separation. Muting is particularly used in highly automated machines and plants. Examples include robotic cells in the automotive industry, rotary and lift table stations in stationary conveying technology, cross-shift trolleys in the front zone of a high-bay warehouse, strapping and film wrapping machines or labeling machines for multi-sided labeling for pallets. In fact, there may be persons in all these areas, which are not actually accessible. They can be exposed to danger there because machines are in motion: operators, service technicians, maintenance personnel, but also unauthorized persons. It is therefore absolutely essential to have proper separation between people and equipment at the "open" access points to danger zones.

With the ASi-5 Safety Muting Module BWU4411, muting applications and thus protection of machines can be realized up to SIL3 and PLe. Bihl+Wiedemann has developed the IP67-rated module: secure single-channel and dual-channel muting signals and, depending on configuration, up to eight standard inputs or outputs. The module supports all types of muting common in the industry: cross-muting, which requires both muting sensors to send a signal simultaneously to start the muting cycle, and the various variants of sequential four-beam muting. In sequential muting, several sensors are connected in sequence. These must emit a signal in a certain order to trigger muting. At the same time, the module also collects signals from all connected standard sensors and also integrates components such as reset buttons or muting lamps into the application. This makes the module the single and central collection point for all muting components and their input/output signals. In the security network, only a single ASi-5 address is required for this purpose. This significantly reduces the effort and cost for hardware and addressing. In addition, the ASi-5 Safety Muting Module has an integrated power supply connection for a non-contact safety device. 

When in use, the BWU4411 transmits important diagnostic data to the user, via the company's ASi-5/ASi-3 instrumentation bus gateways and, if desired, with connectivity options up to the IIoT. The muting function can be automatically created in the ASIMON360 security software from Bihl+Wiedemann. However, it is also possible to transmit the signals via a safe protocol on the fieldbus such as PROFIsafe, CIP safety, FSoE to a safety control system and use them there for interconnection. With ASi-5 Safety, muting can be efficiently implemented in a single piece of hardware, especially since AS-Interface as a wiring technology makes it - thanks to its pinhole technology - extremely easy, safe and economical to connect components. The module itself also has an attractive cost tag; it is more than 60% more economical than comparable Ethernet-based solutions from other vendors.

One and all ease of use with AS-Interface

However, solutions with AS-Interface and ASi Safety - including ASi-5 and ASi-5 Safety - stand not only for efficiency, but also for simplicity and flexibility. Because gateways are available for a large number of common fieldbuses, a solution once implemented can be easily and inexpensively adapted to other requirements. For example, a different control needed for a project. Only the gateway needs to be replaced in that case. Several identical muting applications in a plant can be passed on without any problems via cut and paste and then configured under a single IP address, controlled by the controller and diagnosed in the event of a malfunction. Should a module ever fail, the entire configuration can be automatically copied to a replacement module. Downtime is thus reduced to a minimum. Additional safety devices as well as complex standard modules such as the IO-Link master can be integrated on the same ASi cable. Even then you can benefit from the well-known advantages of ASi and ASi Safety. Thus, AS-Interface fulfills all requirements to find the optimal solution for every application.