Industry 4.0

Source: Robert Kneschke, fotolia.com

"Industry 4.0" is a sub-sphere of "Work 4.0" that is strongly influenced by technical developments. "Industry 4.0" is the heading under which a new, far-reaching digitalization and networking of manufacturing is being discussed. Applications in production, logistics and transport are particularly affected. Among the consequences are machine controls of increasing complexity, the safety of which must be assured.

Use of tablets and smartphones for safe machine control: With the advent of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0, increasing importance is being attached to wireless control and monitoring of machinery, devices and entire installations. Just as the smart home can be controlled conveniently from a mobile phone when on the move, industry also wants to use mobile terminal devices to control processes wirelessly and remotely. Simple though it may sound however, this cannot be attained in practice by means of a simple app. Standards set out ...

Safety of machine controls to EN ISO 13849: The increasing automation and networking of industrial processes places particular demands upon the reliability of machine controls. The IFA conducts research and consulting in this area and provides numerous practical resources.

Safety-related application software for machinery – The IFA matrix method (IFA Report 2/2016): Manufacturers in the machine construction sector are increasingly using application programming of safety controls in order to implement safety functions. The current EN ISO 13849 and EN 62061 standards are the first to define requirements concerning the development of software employed for safety functions. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the standards IFA in conjunction with machinery construction companies from the region formulated a development method suitable for application in the field – the IFA matrix method – which was documented in a research report together with a number of examples.

Industry 4.0

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