The IO-Link Safety Certified Designer Workshop was successfully held in Karlsruhe, Germany for three days from May 9 to May 11, 2023. The presenters of the workshop were:
- Dr. Rieß, TÜV Süd
- Mr. Klaus-Peter Willems, TMG TE
- Dr. F.-Otto Witte, TEConcept GmbH
On the first day Dr. F.-Otto Witte and Klaus-Peter Willems introduced in the IO-Link technology, which is used as a Black Channel for IO-Link Safety, and IO-Link Safety basics, protocol, integration and engineering. The presentations were supplemented by a practical demonstration of off-site engineering with an IO-Link safety drive.
On the second day, Dr. Rieß introduced the background, standards and processes related to functional safety. The international standard, IEC61508, is particularly important here. Every development for IO-Link safety products that support up to SIL3 is subject to the rules of safety standards and safety development processes and requires an assessment by a competent body such as TÜV Süd.
The third day of the training session was focused on IO-Link FS conformance testing and test systems. In the morning session, a general introduction into the conformance testing strategies of IO-Link, its coverage, and the construction of test cases of the test specification was presented. The recently updated workflow regarding conformity testing for IO-Link FS-products concerning IO-Link Manufacturers, IO-Link FS-Test Centers and Assessment bodies concluded the overview. For IO-Link Safety automatic test systems for conformance testing are already available. Mr. Willems introduced the FS-Device Tester including practical demonstrations. Dr. Witte introduced the FS-Master Tester, also with practical demonstration. On request of the participants, an additional live demonstration of a running IO-Link communication using a real-time analogue- and digital IO-Link protocol analyzer was given by him.
At the end of the workshop an overview of services and tools for IO-Link FS Device and Master Developments was given by Mr. Willems and Dr. Witte.
Each of the participants received a certificate as “Certified IO-Link Safety Designer” if they successfully completed a test. For this purpose, the participants had to answer around 25 questions about the presented content at the end of the day. Even if the 2 hours that were available here seems quite long, it caused the participants a lot of headaches. On the other hand, the speakers are happy about the consistently good and competent answers to the questions. Little stands in the way of successful IO-Link safety developments.