openSafety Protocol Wins IEC Approval

The fieldbus-independent safety protocol has been released for international standardization.

Aug 12th, 2010

The fieldbus-independent openSafety protocol has been approved by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a worldwide standard, according to an Aug. 3 press release from B&R Industrial Automation Corp. (www.br-automation.com), an Austrian-based automation components supplier with U.S. headquarters in Roswell, Ga.

The openSafety protocol was tested according to IEC 61784-3 FSCP 13 and approved by national IEC committees representing 27 countries including China, Germany and the United States, and is therefore released for international standardization, B&R said.

Because openSafety is bus-independent, it can be used with all fieldbus or industrial Ethernet systems. At the April Hannover Fair, in Hannover, Germany, openSafety was presented in applications using some of the most popular industrial Ethernet protocols: SERCOS III, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP and Powerlink. For the first time, users of an industrial Ethernet system other than Powerlink now also have a complete, certified and open safety solution available to them, B&R said. openSafety has been certified by TÜV Rheinland and TÜV Süd for SIL 3 applications.

“End customers have been requesting a uniform and manufacturer-independent standard for years, and openSafety is the response to those requests. It allows increases in productivity that are currently not possible with other safety protocols,” states Stefan Schoenegger, Open Automation Business Unit Manager at B&R Industrial Automation.

B&R Industrial Automation Corp.
www.br-automation.com

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