Comparing the Functional Safety Ensured by Safety Relays and CIP Safety Communication in Palletizing Machines

The authors describe the basics of the CIP protocol, show measures to ensure the CIP protocol safety in transmitting safety-related information, and compare the classic data package with the CIP-Safety information transported over the Ethernet. We propose to use the Ethernet to transfer safety information even at the highest level of safety integrity; in the actual designing of the safety functions, the network does not constitute a bottle neck, which will be demonstrated on palletizing machinery. This paper contains also a calculation of the MTTFd for both discussed scenarios.