Enhancing Safety in Manufacturing Systems by Integrating Diagnostic Information

Integrating traditionally separate industrial control systems can derive factory-wide benefits by leveraging more information about the ongoing process. This paper shows that connecting a networked safety system and a process control system leads to an extension of the individual benefits provided by each system. A safety system gains the ability to protect not only the machines and workers but also the product that is being built. A diagnostic system can also raise safety alarms when a process variable is outside the expected range of safe operation. This connection is explored to determine the practical impact of different methods of integration on machining and system processes. Three integration methods are possible depending on which portions of the system can be classified as “safe”. A case study integrating a diagnostics system as a non-safe sensor proves that this connection, when it is implemented on an industrial testbed, provides all of the benefits described and does not require significant changes to control software.