We spoke with Christian Olivares, Director of Product and Program Management – Safety at Banner Engineering, to learn more about smart machine safety systems. Christian discusses distinctive features and benefits, industry trends, and common selection and implementation challenges and introduces Banner’s In-Series Diagnostics product portfolio.
Program Management – Safety at Banner
Engineering
Industrial environments are rife with hazards, so protecting personnel, machinery, and processes is paramount. And as smart automation and control technologies continue to evolve and become more pervasive, it’s getting even easier to provide robust, reliable protection in even the most challenging industrial environments. As such, the global machine safety market is experiencing steady growth. It’s currently valued at $6.1 billion and is projected to almost double in the next 10 years, reaching a value of $11.2 billion by 2035. We spoke with Christian Olivares, Director of Product and Program Management – Safety at Banner Engineering, to learn more about smart machine safety systems. Here, Christian discusses distinctive features and benefits, industry trends, and common selection and implementation challenges and introduces Banner’s In-Series Diagnostics product portfolio.
Q1. Hi Christian. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about Banner Engineering.
I’m Christian Olivares, the Director of Product and Program Management for the safety business unit at Banner. I have a bachelor’s in chemistry and a master’s in mechanical engineering, and I’ve been at Banner for about 10 years now. I’ve helped expand our international business in South America and Mexico. I’ve worked in several different support roles, ranging from product generalist to specialist, for our wireless connectivity and safety business units, and I’ve also worked on the product management side. So, I’m well-experienced with the different products we develop and manufacture.
Banner Engineering has been around for almost 60 years. We got our start developing photoelectric sensors, but since then we’ve been expanding into machine safety, industrial wireless communications, illumination and indication, and — more recently —connectivity. In addition to our ever-growing product range, we have 30 offices, four manufacturing facilities, and over 350 distribution partners around the world, which gives us global reach.
Q2. You joined us today to talk about smart machine safety systems. So, let’s dive in. What should people know?
Before we get into smart machine safety systems, let’s talk about standard machine safety systems. While tried and true, standard mechanical machine safety solutions can be cumbersome to install. In some cases, the physical wiring of these systems can define their functionality. So, proper installation requires a significant level of expertise. If they’re installed incorrectly, you can run into issues like fault masking, which can give the illusion of safety. Additionally, people who understand how these systems work can intentionally defeat them, which can lead to unsafe conditions, and that’s really difficult to design around.
How do smart machine safety systems differ? It starts with installation and configuration. Smart machine safety systems are typically connectorized. So, instead of having to land individual wires for each safety relay, you may not need to land wires at all. And when you do, it’s likely at a controller or PLC, which makes installation easier. These systems also offer multiple communications protocols, smart end devices and controllers designed to support more complex systems, allow users to leverage different software platforms to commission the system, and help them iterate and replicate a lot quicker. Advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting capabilities are another significant benefit and can eliminate common issues like fault masking.
Obviously, people don’t intend to make unsafe systems, but a single miswire can trigger a failure mode. Advanced diagnostics can help users identify — or even prevent — these types of challenges. They can also prevent personnel from bypassing safety measures, believing it’ll help them work faster, and making even well-intentioned changes to the system that could, without the right expertise, have unforeseen safety consequences. And the combination of diagnostics and communications capabilities allows users to monitor system changes and prevent machines from running if certain criteria don’t match the predefined configuration.
Together, the many unique benefits of smart machine safety systems help reduce downtime and keep personnel and assets safe.
The main driver of these advanced capabilities is data, which is the case for most Industry 4.0 technologies. Smart safety systems give users actionable insights into real-time machine and process data and help them enact robust safety measures and preventative maintenance, diagnose, troubleshoot, and reduce downtime, and optimize productivity.
Engineering features a safety controller capable of communicating with and enabling remote monitoring for the integrated e-stop, light curtains, and tower lights.
Today, smart machine safety systems are everywhere, ranging from simple emergency stop relay combos for minimal diagnostics to more complex solutions, like smart safety light curtains that not only communicate device status but which beams are blocked and smart guard locking and door monitoring systems that can remotely verify whether entry and machine cage doors are fully closed and locked, reliably preventing unauthorized access to unsafe areas.
These more complex safety solutions combine smart components with controllers, relays, and PLCs that allow them to talk to different end devices, send that information to an HMI or SCADA system, and enable remote monitoring.
Q3. What common challenges do people face when it comes to selecting and implementing smart machine safety solutions, and do you have any advice for overcoming these challenges?
A few big ones are: Where do I start? What kind of communications protocol do I need? What is the added cost for implementing these devices? Which products can utilize this protocol, and is this an open-source protocol, or do I have to use something proprietary?
When you’re evaluating these types of devices, start with a solid understanding of your current ecosystem, examine how you can reduce its complexity via integration, and ensure that you can support integration, because more complex systems can require specific skill sets for installation. Consider versatility as well. Do the devices use a supplier-specific protocol, or are their communication protocols compatible with devices from different vendors? If you’ve got devices that only speak one language, you have to decide if you’re only going to speak that language or if you need to prioritize versatility.
Priorities are critical. Do you care more about diagnostics, ease of installation, or communication capabilities? Users that prioritize portability and interoperability will want versatile, open-source communications, like IO-Link protocols.
Cost is a factor too. Some fieldbus communication protocols have a high premium, while device-level communication protocols aren’t as impactful on total system cost.
You also need to identify your user needs. Are you building unique, one-off systems that need more device flexibility since you’re going to be working with a lot of different vendors, or are you building a lot of cookie-cutter systems that you just want to quickly configure, install, and likely tie into a single ecosystem?
The answers to these questions will be specific to user’s application requirements and priorities, but the good news is there are options for each. For instance, the biggest issue for e-stops with traditional contacts is fault masking. So, if your priorities are safety, quick installation, and diagnostics and you also want to eliminate the potential for fault masking, you could specify solid-state devices with advanced diagnostics.
Q4. Please introduce us to Banner Engineering’s In-Series Diagnostics Smart Machine Safety Systems.
We’re no strangers to safety solutions, and our In-Series Diagnostics (ISD) technology brings machine safety products to the next level, providing advanced diagnostics for each connected device. ISD technology allows you to daisy chain up to 32 ISD devices, bring them back to a Banner safety controller, and access individual device status data for each of those 32 devices. And it’s a novel system in that it doesn’t require any sort of custom connectivity. Our solid-state ISD machine safety solutions feature a communications layer on top of the safety signals that’s facilitated by a standardized four-pin M12 connector with a standard pin-out and standard cabling.
Standardized connectivity is one of the main benefits of the ISD ecosystem. Many competing solutions require either proprietary cables or custom cordsets. So, the ISD combination of standard M12s with standard pinouts and the protocol’s vast interoperability with control systems and devices really simplifies the wiring side of installation and eases troubleshooting while ensuring the highest level of safety and meeting PLe requirements.
Another benefit of the ISD protocol is versatility. While ISD is a proprietary Banner protocol, the devices themselves can be used with any safety controller or safety relay that’s compatible with standard solid-state safety IOs. So, if you want to start implementing smart machine safety systems but aren’t ready to commit to full-blown integration, our devices deliver the benefits of the connectivity and commissioning.
ISD devices have pulsed safety outputs that allow you to meet the highest safety standards and still reap some of the benefits of transitioning to a smart safety system even if you don’t use a Banner controller. You wouldn’t get the diagnostic information, but you’d still get the enhanced safety and reliability benefits. And when you connect smart ISD devices, like e-stops, into Banner safety controllers, you’ll get the diagnostic benefits for individual connected devices and can, for example, measure and validate the device voltage and identify and voltage drops in your system.
Banner safety controllers support standard industrial communication protocols: Ethernet IP, PROFINET, Modbus, and EtherCAT. This lets you take device-level diagnostic data up to a SCADA system where it can become actionable. If an ISD e-stop with this configuration is pressed, the operators and maintenance teams will know it was pressed without having to go across the line to check and reset each device. If a safety door with this configuration is left open, users can remotely identify exactly which door it is, which helps reduce downtime and make troubleshooting a lot easier.
Additionally, there’s not a huge cost add for these types of systems, which makes them even more accessible.
Q5. Please introduce us to a couple products from Banner Engineering’s smart machine safety portfolio.
To fully implement our ISD technology, you’ll need a safety controller or IO-Link Gateway and something to receive and distribute the diagnostics. Our SC10 controller (pictured left) is a compact safety controller/relay hybrid with ISD and can function as a standalone safety system with relay outputs for your machine shutoff or interface and up to 10 safety inputs. It can also take in up to two different ISD chains, each of which can have up to 32 ISD devices. So, our SC10 controllers can manage up to 64 ISD devices, such as multiple door switches and e-stop systems, which gives you a lot of expandability with a single device. It also comes with software that allows you to configure different safety systems, ranging from simple emergency stop reset systems to muting systems and door monitoring systems. In traditional safety systems, you have a single device with either a single function or different functionality depending on how you wire it. With the SC10 controller, wiring all the inputs allows you to configure the logic within the software based on the safety system you have. This provides a lot more flexibility than traditional systems, where the wiring may determine the logic or even the device (generally single-function safety relays) or you need higher-tier safety PLCs that add significant costs and often provide more capabilities than most users need.
Another popular product in our ISD line is our lighted ISD e-stops (pictured left). These solid-state, fail-safe devices don’t exhibit the fault masking issue you’ll find in standard-contact devices and can still be daisy chained while meeting the highest level of safety, PLe, and SIL3. They also have large indicators that illuminate green when everything is in good condition and flash red when someone presses an emergency button, which helps alleviate the traditional e-stop pain point of having to manually identify which button is pressed locally in order to reset it and can significantly reduce downtime. And in addition to the local indication, they offer remote indication and multiple layers of diagnostics and visualizations via the ISD protocol. This allows users to see which e-stop button has been pressed at both the system and SCADA system levels.
They’re also available with a variety of options, including locking capabilities, shrouds, and washdown accessories to satisfy a wide variety of application requirements.
Q6. Are there any success stories you’d like to share about Banner’s ISD smart machine safety system products?
A poultry processing company was having issues with their facilities and needed emergency stop devices on the conveyor systems for their manual deboning stations so they could locally stop the system in case of any emergency or to remove visible hazards or contaminants from the line. It’s a dirty environment that requires a lot of heavy washdowns and rigorous sanitization. So, they needed a robust, reliable e-stop engineered to withstand the many hazards of the environment, and since they’ve got multiple facilities in the U.S., they also needed to be able to remotely monitor the status of each facility and make updates as needed.
The diagnostics and the in-series communications capabilities of our illuminated ISD e-stops helped them identify which areas were being actuated the most, where are they having the most line blockages, and why. And the FDA-grade silicone washdown covers for our illuminated e-stops allowed them to install these devices in their harsh, highly regulated, and rigorously sanitized food processing environment. Combining these devices with the network access feature on our ISD safety controller, allowed them to remotely monitor and even configure the safety devices, kept their production lines safe, and helped them identify and overcome their production issues so they could continue to grow as an organization.
Q7. Is there anything else you’d like RS customers to know about Banner Engineering or its ISD smart machine safety product portfolio?
Banner is continuing to innovate across the safety space. In addition to ISD safety controllers and illuminated ISD e-stops, we’ve got RFID door monitoring devices, and we’re actively developing different products with similar capabilities. We also offer a variety of standard safety products as well, including safety light curtains, laser scanners, programmable buttons, and tower lights, as well as a full automation package that includes industrial safety, sensor, connector, and communication products, like IO-Link masters. So, we can be a one-stop shop for industrial customers.
Get smart about machine safety with Banner Engineering solutions from RS
Banner Engineering is a leading global supplier of industrial automation solutions, including smart machine safety systems, wireless solutions, sensors, and LED lighting for indication and operator interface and control — all of which are designed to enhance productivity, reduce costs, simplify processes, and improve quality.
RS offers a vast selection of Banner Engineering solutions, including the ISD Smart Machine Safety Systems portfolio, which contains ISD safety controllers like the SC10 controller, illuminated ISD e-stops, and RFID door monitoring devices, as well as a robust portfolio of standard safety solutions and innovative industrial automation products. For more information about these products, please visit the links embedded here and Banner’s Smart Machine Safety Systems page.
For assistance identifying, procuring, deploying, and maintaining Banner Engineering smart machine safety solutions optimized for your industrial environments, please contact your local RS representative at 1.866.433.5722 or reach out to the RS technical support team.
For more expert insights from Banner Engineering, click to view their other contributions to the RS Expert Advice Series, which address digitalization, industrial connectivity, condition monitoring, IO-Link, pick-to-light solutions, sensors, and other industrial automation topics.
