Part 2 of the suite of PLCopen Safety specifications deals with User Guidelines.
As Part 1 of the Safety specification is more focused to the implementers of the functionalities, PLCopen realized it needed to do more to help OEMs to add the safety functionality to their machines’ application software. For this reason PLCopen continued with a Part 2 – User Guidelines.
This document Part 2 is focused to the users of the PLCopen functionalities and demonstrates the ease of use of the defined function blocks in real life applications. The PLCopen safety functionalities are focused to the machine building industry, as well as related system integrators.
The combination of logic, motion, and safety in one environment provides the user with a harmonized view of the total application within one environment. And with multiple implementations, this is also valid across platforms. This means less educational efforts, and simpler transfer of knowledge and application software between different controls. Also, it tackles the ‘not-invented-here syndrome’, which often is a cause of errors and additional costs. By using tested functionality, and support in the programming environment, including language definition with subsets of functionality, one is able to create safety related application programs for easy commissioning.
With this, a major contribution to the acceptance and usage of safety related functionality is made. This will take away several hurdles as they now exist, especially for the machine building industry.