Connectivity and diagnostics through new safety relay module

IDEC Cor­po­ra­tion launch­es the new HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ule, an intel­li­gent device that sup­ports a wide range of con­nec­tions, input devices and oper­at­ing modes — com­ple­ment­ed by con­ve­nient diag­nos­tic func­tions and sta­tus monitoring.

Increased safety and reliable productivity through IIoT connectivity with intelligent control

Safe­ty relays are crit­i­cal com­po­nents when it comes to mon­i­tor­ing safe­ty-relat­ed inputs and pro­tect­ing oper­a­tors as well as machines. For exam­ple, they enable devices only when the pres­ence of nor­mal con­di­tions is con­firmed. The new HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ules also pro­vide pre­dic­tive main­te­nance with advanced diag­nos­tics and out­put func­tions: To pre­vent unin­tend­ed stops, not only diag­nos­tic results but also detailed infor­ma­tion about safe­ty-relat­ed parts is record­ed, such as the sta­tus of inputs and outputs.

Exten­sive diag­nos­tic and out­put options for a wide range of devices: The HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ule can be stan­dard­ized and, thanks to IIoT con­nec­tiv­i­ty with intel­li­gent con­trol, ensures high­er work safe­ty as well as reli­ably func­tion­ing pro­duc­tion with­out unin­ten­tion­al interruptions.

While most con­ven­tion­al relay mod­ules are not equipped with any remote con­nec­tiv­i­ty options, the new HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ules fea­ture a sta­tus out­put that makes 20 dif­fer­ent indi­ca­tions of oper­at­ing sta­tus, faults and warn­ings dis­playable over just one line. This unique capa­bil­i­ty enables super­vi­so­ry con­trol sys­tems and IIoT plat­forms to per­form visu­al­iza­tion, diag­nos­tics, pre­ven­tive main­te­nance and oth­er analy­sis. Mul­ti­ple LEDs with col­ored steady or flash­ing lights clear­ly indi­cate the cur­rent oper­at­ing sta­tus or faults direct­ly on site. This allows oper­a­tors to iden­ti­fy prob­lems at a glance and take the appro­pri­ate action imme­di­ate­ly. A seal­ing tape can also be used to secure the pro­tec­tive cov­er to pre­vent acci­den­tal oper­a­tion of the rotary knobs or unin­ten­tion­al chang­ing of settings.

HR6S reliably keeps production online

The HR6S fam­i­ly of safe­ty relay mod­ules sim­pli­fies the design of safe­ty cat­e­go­ry 1, 3 and 4 devices, and also pro­vides exten­sive IIoT data to reli­ably keep pro­duc­tion online while fur­ther enhanc­ing work­er safe­ty. The com­pa­ny will also soon launch the HR5S safe­ty relay mod­ule, which meets Cat­e­go­ry 2 require­ments. With these two mod­ules, they are the only sup­pli­er in the world that can deliv­er safe­ty relay mod­ules for all appli­ca­tions from safe­ty cat­e­go­ry 1 to 4.

Standardizable and extremely adaptable

The HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ule is designed to meet the require­ments of ISO 13849. The prod­uct range includes one mod­el for low-risk safe­ty cat­e­go­ry 1 appli­ca­tions and six mod­els for safe­ty cat­e­go­ry 3 and 4 process­es where there is high risk and there­fore redun­dan­cy is required. Select­ing input devices and start func­tions by knob allows safe­ty mea­sures for a wide range of machines and stan­dard­iza­tion of the relay mod­ule. Depend­ing on the mod­el, up to sev­en types of input devices can be select­ed, also offered by IDEC — includ­ing emer­gency stop switch­es, light cur­tains, RFID devices, two-hand switch­es, pres­sure-sen­si­tive devices and var­i­ous types of inter­lock switch­es. Con­nec­tions are intu­itive­ly arranged, with ter­mi­nal blocks avail­able as either high-reli­a­bil­i­ty push-in solu­tions or con­ven­tion­al screw con­nec­tors. Both vari­ants are remov­able and easy to maintain.

Up to eight dif­fer­ent start modes are selec­table via rotary switch with­out chang­ing the wiring, includ­ing options for man­u­al and auto­mat­ic start. While all HR6S mod­els fea­ture a com­pact DIN-mount­able design, some vari­ants are also equipped with adjustable off-delays. An option­al expan­sion mod­ule is avail­able for a high­er num­ber of safe­ty outputs.

As for all its prod­ucts, the com­pa­ny offers free tech­ni­cal sup­port for the HR6S safe­ty relay mod­ule with­out the need for a cor­re­spond­ing ser­vice contract.