Pilz: Gate Safeguard

October 28, 2019

The best gate safeguard or access control is worthless if unauthorised access to your machine is possible via the IT system. A holistic safety concept is required here, that takes both machinery safety and industrial security into account. Should any security gaps emerge, loss of quality and unplanned downtimes are two of the possible scenarios. So it’s all the more important to protect plant and machinery in such a way that only authorised personnel have access and manipulation of the control systems by attacks from outside is prevented.

Pilz can offer you a coherent machine access concept, which takes into account not only the safety of your machine, but also its industrial security. Here is a compiled potential solution for secure access control.

In every company there are areas that need to be protected from unwanted access. However, it’s important not only to protect the human from the machine, but also the machine from the human. As a result it’s necessary to consider machinery safety and industrial IT security in equal measure.

With the operating mode selection and access permission system PITmode fusion, the modular safety gate system, the small controllers PNOZmulti 2 and the firewall SecurityBridge, Pilz offers a solution that not only takes the machinery safety requirements into account but also defines permissions for service engineers as well as other persons and roles. That way your staff are protected from any hazards the machine may present, and your machine is protected from operator errors and manipulation.

The operating mode selection and access permission system PITmode fusion authenticates people based on the data on a cryptographically protected RFID key and authorises these people to perform certain actions based on the stored permissions. Nobody can open the safety gate, which is protected via a gate lock, until the reader unit registers the correct permission. The firewall SecurityBridge protects access via the network. It monitors communication with the controller, in this case the small controllers PNOZmulti 2, and guarantees that on-site operation cannot be influenced by unauthorised access via the network.

That way Pilz offers you a coherent machine access concept, which not only takes machinery safety into account, but also industrial security.

Check out related products here.