Engineers designing machinery safety systems can now more easily collaborate across multiple languages using the Safety Automation Builder software tool from Rockwell Automation.
The software – designed to help engineers save time when designing safety systems – has been downloaded more than 15,000 times since its launch in February 2013. It also was named one of the top 10 most innovative products at last year's SPS Drives show in Germany.
"Many manufacturers are using the Safety Automation Builder tool to simplify selection of safety devices and to speed engineering time,” said David Reade, business development consultant, safety and sensing, Rockwell Automation. “Now they can achieve the same time savings when working across regions and languages.”
“We’re already seeing this in action,” Reade said. “One manufacturer in Italy used the Safety Automation Builder tool when collaborating with a system integrator in Hungary and a machine builder in Germany. The tool automatically translated the original design file into the other languages without changing any of the functional data, cutting engineering time and paperwork.”
The Safety Automation Builder software tool automates the safety-selection process. Users import an image of the machinery they need to safeguard and answer questions using a drop-down menu and help screens to identify and select the necessary safeguards. The software then compiles all product selections, generates a bill of materials, and compiles necessary data to populate IFA’s SISTEMA (Safety Integrity Software Tool for Evaluation of Machine Applications). SISTEMA helps evaluate the system in accordance with ISO 13849-1:2008.
The software, which is available as a free download from the Rockwell Automation website, requires that users download and run SISTEMA.
SISTEMA is available in a limited number of languages, so the Safety Automation Builder tool’s expanded language functionality allows engineers to more easily generate SISTEMA reports outside of their local language. For example, an engineer who doesn’t speak any of the languages offered by SISTEMA can create a bill of materials in his or her local language using the Safety Automation Builder tool. He or she can then import the data into SISTEMA, and generate a final report without needing to translate the information.
“This is especially helpful for inter-country projects where machinery is developed and then exported,” Reade said. “In addition, multinational companies can more easily accept design files from a variety of machine builders in one common format and export the files to other design offices around the world.”
The new languages include Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.
Rockwell Automation also has used customer feedback to significantly expand the help files and improve user experience. Recently, the company has added new safety functions, which are pre-engineered design documents containing detailed information for many safeguarding methods, including specific functionality, performance level data, and required input, logic and output components. These documents also include parts lists, electrical drawings, a SISTEMA project file, and verification and validation plans. After completing the Safety Automation Builder process, users can select the appropriate safety function needed for a particular machine and combine it with the bill of materials to design a complete safety system.
About Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Rockwell Automation employs about 22,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.
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