Leuze electronic sees itself as an expert in the field of Safety@work, explained Managing Director Ulrich Balbach at a press conference at SPS IPC Drives, and offers its customers complete system solutions - starting with the safe 'MSI' controller in the control cabinet, through safe sensors - light curtains, scanners, switches and guard locking devices - to the matching safety services. Customers are supported throughout the entire life cycle of their machine or system - be it with risk analyses, safety inspections or run-on time measurements.

Based on the 'MLC' safety light curtains, 'Smart Process Gating' has been developed as an alternative to the muting process that does not require any signal-emitting sensors. Material must be fed in and out at conveyor system access points, but people must not be able to enter the hazardous areas. For this purpose, safety light barriers are installed at the access points. The muting method is often used to ensure that only the material can pass through the light barrier. Specially arranged sensors detect the material and allow it to pass through. 'Smart process gating' uses a signal from the control system and the interruption of the light barrier for release. As sensors are no longer required, the conveyor systems can be built particularly compactly, saving valuable space.

Ulrich Balbach highlighted the 'RSL 400' safety laser scanner with Profinet/Profisafe as another safety highlight at SPS IPC Drives. These new variants can be easily integrated into industrial networks and have also been developed in a robust AIDA-compliant version especially for the German automotive industry. Another new feature is the combination of 'RSL' safety technology with a high-precision measured value output for the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). When driverless transport systems work with contour navigation, the safety laser scanner can simultaneously take on the task of navigation support in addition to its safety task, and an additional sensor is not required. The device sends the measured values from the environmental scan to the navigation computer. Due to the technology used in the 'RSL 400', the measured values have a particularly high resolution and low error, which in turn enables fast and precise navigation of the vehicles.