Safety Designed For The Future
New scalable safety products by Kubler will offer perfect safety also in the next modernization or extension phase of a machine.
The new Safety-M safety modules support the modernization actions for old machines, from upgrading or retrofitting machines up to tailormade and functionally equipped new plants. Optional OLED displays even allow taking in charge locally display and operating functions. Kubler's new Safety-M safety modules range offers the suitable module for every automation task, centralized in a cabinet, distributed among several cabinets with cross communication, up to decentralized installations.
The full gantry cranes used in foundries to handle dangerous and heavy loads are en example for the appropriate retrofitting of existing plants. Most of intelligence of the crane can be found in the winch units. They control the accurate positioning and the gentle approach. They are equipped with hoist monitoring units that protect them from overloading, with hoisting frequency converters, with a frequency converter control for the travel drives and, not least, with robust SIL encoders on the hoist motor.
According to Directive relating to the use of work equipment, the electrical and hydraulic controls of the machines used here must comply with the requirements of the highest safety level. According to the European standard EN ISO 13849-1, an error in the machine control shall not lead to the loss of the safety function. It must "be detected prior to the following dangerous movement" and "the movement of the machine must be stopped safely in case of an error". These requirements do not apply only to new machines, but also, without restriction, to older used machines.
If the electrical and hydraulic control does not meet these requirements, only two solutions remain: upgrade or take out of service. The modular safety technology, which processes all electrical and hydraulic control signals, is a central element of a gantry crane. As machine availability is very important in the steel industry, Safety-M Modular equipped with an AS+ system bus is predestined for this application. If single modules fail or if the concerned plant sector goes off line, the central unit goes on working reliably.
Large choice of interfaces
The modules of the Safety-M Modular series offer a great variety of interfaces ranging from field buses such as CANopen, Profibus DP, through Industrial Ethernet such as Profinet, EtherCat, Ethernet/IP, up to Profisafe and many others. In spite of its compact size, the basic module already offers up to eight inputs and outputs.
Combined with the expansion modules, its fields of application can be substantially expanded: The service range of the currently 22 different safety modules encompasses safe and standard inputs and outputs for light barriers, access control, emergency stop buttons or simply signal lights, safe potential-free relay contacts and, in addition, various safe speed monitoring devices for the optimal coverage of all drive safety functions with various encoder interfaces.
The new Kubler Safety-M modular safety series offers allround safety solutions at an affordable price that grow as the automation tasks do. They are suited both for retrofitting and upgrading machines and for new machine designs. With Safety-M, even complex automation tasks can be implemented easily with a minimum of programming. Moreover, the modules can grow with the expansion of the plant.