As an internationally oriented all-round provider, SICK provides the right solution for industrial safety systems. The new safety control solutions, when used together with the opto-electronic protective equipment, provide a safe complete solution for your application.
Thanks to innovative development of products and enhancing the scope of functions via the EFI or SDL interface available on the device, SICK provides more than just integration.
The SICK-specific EFI and SDL interfaces are used for safe data transfer and enhanced functionality and diagnostic capability.
Integration via OSSDs
Integration via EFI interface
Easy and flexible configuration as well as function switch-over of the opto-electronic protective device via the safety controller
Shortest response times for small safety distances to the hazardous zone ➜space saving machine design
Higher availability of the production line
The OSSD output (OSSD = Output Signal Switching Device) is a safe switching output in a opto-electronic protective device (such as a C4000 safety light curtain or a S3000 safety laser scanner).
If the protective field is interrupted, the safety sensor switches the switching outputs (OSSDs) to the off state. This causes the machine or the dangerous state to be switched off.
Each safety sensor has two parallel OSSD outputs that have to be evaluated separately from each other (dual-channel), depending on the safety level required. For example, opto-electronic protective device would be connected to a safety relay or a safety controller for category 3 as per EN 954-1 or Performance Level d as per EN ISO 13849-1 via two OSSD outputs on the opto-electronic protective device.
When integrating safety sensors via OSSDs, it is important to note that bidirectional communication between the participants is not possible. The safety sensor transmits the status information "protective field-free". This status information is evaluated in the safety controller or the safety relay.
Diagnostics of the safety sensors can only be carried out locally on the device. Diagnosis is not possible via the safety controller.
Benefit
The SICK-specific EFI interface (EFI = Enhanced Function Interface) was developed to implement safe communication between opto-electronic protective device, safety controllers or gateways.
These EFI interfaces can be used to transmit the process data for multiple participants, with minimal installation work, and they also enhance the functional scope of the individual protective equipment.
EFI enables a fast overview of the entire system configuration, leading to increased capacity to act and greater availability of your machine.
Enhanced sensor functions, such as:
Simultaneous protective field evaluation (S3000 safety laser scanner) Protective field switching Evaluating status signals (such as dirty front screen)The decisive benefit of the EFI interface over integration via OSSD is that diagnostic information about all the EFI participants is available to the higher-level control system or gateway, with a large amount of information.
Benefits
When it comes to diagnostic capability and achieving the shortest response times, SICK offers the option of connecting the sensors to the safety controller, making use of the interplay between EFI and OSSDs (abbreviated to SDL = Safety Data Link).
This ideal connection of EFI and OSSDs means that EFI participants can communicate with each other and the machine can be switched to a safe state in the fastest possible time.