This Safety Evaluation Tool automatically calculates the quality of safety functions in accordance with the standards EN 62061 (Safety of machinery - Functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic control systems) and EN ISO13849-1 (Safety of machinery - Safety-related parts of control systems). In the online tool, all the user has to do is to first specify the desired safety function, for example monitoring of a protective door. Examples are provided, or the user can specify particular functions. After this, machine safety components are entered, namely sensors, evaluation unit and actuators. These components can be selected from a database of Siemens products that have already been certified according to the relevant safety standards. Products of other manufacturers can be entered manually. Finally, the tool calculates the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) or the Performance Level (PL). The result is a report that is in line with the standards. It is added to the machine documents and provides proof that the machine directive has been fully complied with.

The tool will be released for use from 15 April onwards. Further information can be found on the Internet at: www.siemens.de/safety-evaluation-tool.