Safety-Capable PACs For Mid-Range Applications

Rockwell Automation has introduced safety variants of its Allen-Bradley 1768 Compactlogix L43 and L45 process automation controllers (PAC) for small- to mid-range applications. The two safety-capable, mid-size PACs fit neatly into the company's Compact Machine Solutions offering and are ideal for use with Point Guard I/O and Compactblock Guard I/O. The learning curve for the safety-enabled PACs is low, according to Rockwell.

Existing users of Compactlogix and Controllogix will see the same RSlogix 5000 programming environment; the main addition being high-integrity add-on instruction sets for safety routines. This means that programs can be simply and easily migrated from one unit to another, both across the range and up or down to/from Guardlogix.

By embedding safety functionality (to SIL 3) Rockwell Automation said it is giving users the ability to simplify their automation and safety infrastructures. With one communication infrastructure, one programming language and one master control unit, all the additional hardware, wiring, training and complexity associated with discrete safety systems is removed. However, the company said this is not achieved by sacrificing core PAC capabilities.

There are no imposed restrictions to language, motion or communications, and by using Ethernet/IP, users are still able to use the PACs for discrete control and motion applications in exactly the same way as their non-safety equivalents. The Compact Guardlogix L43 and L45 processors offer control of up to eight axes; can incorporate multiple communication cards to deal with multiple protocols and offer good performance due to their high-speed Logix engine and ability to cater for multiple I/O configurations.

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