At Railtex 2013, which takes place at London's Earls Court from 30 April to 2 May, Pilz will present an automated half barrier level crossing demonstrator in which the PSS 4000-R Safety PLC system handles the control and signalling. In addition, the company will present a seminar on the use of industrial safety PLCs for a modern, future-oriented railway infrastructure. Pilz staff from the UK and other countries will be available during the exhibition to talk about the benefits of PLC technology for the rail sector, as the PSS 4000-R has already been used successfully for numerous rail industry applications.
Previously safety systems in the railway sector have largely used proprietary, specialist technology - much of it based around relay logic; however, this has often involved a lot of work for a one-off approval, particularly with regard to rail safety standards.
Components in the PSS 4000-R system (PLC header modules and I/O modules) already have the approvals necessary for railway applications, which minimises the time and effort needed for verification and validation work. Thanks to its scalability, the PSS 4000-R system can be used for SIL 2, SIL 3 and SIL 4 applications.Various applications can be implemented using the PSS 4000-R:
The PSS 4000-R system is characterised by a particularly robust design and it meets the increased requirements from the railway sector. Additional benefits include intuitive programming with standardised EN/IEC 61131-3 editors and Ethernet-based communications.
Thales Germany has been using the PSS 4000-R. Mr Norbert Howe, the company's Director of Solutions for the German Business Area, Transportation Systems, states: "Pilz offers us standardised technology for developing signalling products. Pilz supports us to evolve our relay-based rail signalling products using state-of-the-art components which meet the highest environmental requirements with regards to temperature, EMC and mechanical load. Pilz can provide standard-compliant solutions through to SIL4-capable control systems in accordance with CENELEC 5012x."
Benefits of the PSS 4000-R for the rail sector can be summarised as:
David Collier of Pilz (UK) will be speaking in a seminar on Thursday 2 May at 12:30 on the subject of Industrial safety PLCs for a modern, future-oriented railway infrastructure.
For more information about the PSS 4000-R Safety PLC system or other safety products for applications in the rail industry, email [email protected], telephone +44 (0)1536 460766 or go to www.pilz.co.uk and enter Webcode 8485.