EC: Simatic S7-1500F safety controller

Safety — Machine Safety: The Siemens Simatic S7-1500F is a CPU 1518F safety controller for demanding standard and fail-safe applications, with advanced functionality requirements. This is a Control Engineering 2015 Engineers’ Choice honorable mention.

By Control Engineering October 20, 2014

The Simatic S7-1518F is a powerful failsafe controller available with a bit performance of 1 nsec . Designed to increase flexibility, safety, efficiency, and productivity at the plant floor level, the new safety controller is suitable for demanding standard and safety-related machine and plant automation applications, including distributed automation structures in addition to centralized I/O. Other technology functions integrated include motion, control, counting, and measuring. It also accommodates up to 128 drive axes, operates isochronously in 250 msec.

The Simatic S7-1518F features an onboard display where diagnostics messages can be seen without the need of a programming device. The display also shows safety status (activated/deactivated), safety signature, and last fail-safe modification. Use of the display during commissioning and for diagnostics leads to shorter downtimes due to the availability of plain-text diagnostic information on central and decentralized modules.

The S7-1518F has optimized diagnostics and efficient fault analysis with a consistent display for STEP 7, HMI, Web server, or for display on the CPU.

Other features include:

  • Faster data logging (archiving) and recipes
  • Easy access to all machine-relevant operating and configuration data using Office tools and via Web server or SD card reader (bidirectional data interchange to and from the controller).
  • Standardized engineering with the powerful Step 7 Safety Advanced V13 in the TIA Portal, for easy creation of fail-safe programs.
  • Drag and drop, project-wide cross-reference list, safety administration editor, and online/offline comparator functions.

The Simatic S7-1518F is certified to EN 61508, up to SIL 3 according to IEC 62061 and PL e according to ISO 13849. Also integrated is optimized security, even against unauthorized access via HMI with controller security level mechanism and includes password protection set up for F-configuration and F-program for IT security. Maximum performance with shortest possible machine response times for enhanced productivity. The SIMATIC S7-1518F delivers the ultimate plus in productivity and efficiency.

Siemens, www.usa.siemens.com