Official safety communication standard established

The DDASCA Consortium named openSAFETY an official communication standard.

November 3, 2011

openSafety, the first completely open safety-oriented data transfer protocol for use in all areas of automation, was declared an official communication standard by the DDASCA Consortium (Dependable Distributed Architecture for Safety Critical Applications), according to EPSG (Ethernet Powerlink Standardization Group), the governing organization for openSafety. This consortium – formed in Paris in March 2011 on the initiative of Arion Entreprise, EADS, HPC Project, ENSTA, Alstom Power, EDF R&D, SNCF, Windriver, B+R, and others – handles the standardization, definition and implementation of open solutions for safety-critical applications up to SIL4. These solutions are then applied in a wide range of areas, from factory automation and energy management to the railway, automotive, medical and defense industries.

With openSafety, the EPSG offers the first 100% open safety protocol in the world, the group said. Its openness isn’t restricted to just the legal definition, either; the word "open" applies in a technical sense as well. Thanks to the total independence of openSAFETY, users can use this technology for all fieldbus systems, industrial Ethernet applications or industry-specific communication solutions.

www.ethernet-powerlink.org/safety

www.br-automation.com 

B+R Automation

– Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com 

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