Press reports

On April 7th 2005, the safe fieldbus system Interbus-Safety has been certified by TÜV Rheinland Group as well as by BGIA for use in safety-relevant applications up to SIL 3 according to DIN EN 61508 and up to safety category 4 according to DIN EN 954-1. Furthermore, the system complies with the corresponding safety regulations described by the EU Machine Directive 98/37/EEC.

Apart from safe communication with Interbus-Safety, also the interface module with integrated safe controller, a safe I/O module with protection class IP67, the safe programming system SafetyProg as well as safe function blocks were tested. All components, developed in cooperation by Phoenix Contact and KW-Software in Lemgo, Germany, are already in use in a plant at Audi AG in Neckarsulm, Germany. Users have been convinced in particular by fast commissioning, easy handling, extensive diagnosis as well as short turn-off times which are at present provided by no other safe fieldbus and automation system. The certifying institutions TÜV Rheinland and BGIA also estimate the Interbus-Safety system as a milestone for comparable solutions.

Parallel to the further development of Interbus-Safety, Phoenix Contact and KW-Software now start to realize the safety concept for the Ethernet Standard Profinet. First results can be expected at the SPS/IPC/Drives 2005.