Safety and Security-two sides of the same coin

摘要

Digital data and its efficient exchange will define the production process of the future. If all communication is decentralised, the demand for secure communication will rise. That encompasses aspects of machinery safety on the one hand, and requirements such as data and IT security on the other. The term safety denotes the functional safety of machinery or, put another way, the protection of people and the environment against threats that can arise from machinery. One option for the worst case is simply to interrupt the energy supply straight away and bring the machine to a hard stop. The traditional way of providing scope for this is by means of special safety wiring and components such as safety relays. Because this approach is very much hardware-based and therefore static, it is not particularly suitable for intelligent manufacturing processes where plant layouts continually need to be changed.