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With every new construction and every modernisation of a machine, its safe operation after completion of the construction or conversion must also be guaranteed. With the help of the Machinery Directive, the plant builder or moderniser finds a legally prescribed set of rules that describes in detail the procedure from hazard analysis to risk reduction to validation of a safety application.

Use of calculation tools for the creation of safety verifications

Within the scope of validating safety applications according to the IEC 62061 and ISO 13849-1 standards, it is necessary, among other things, to calculate the achieved safety level with the safety-related characteristic values of the products used and thus prove compliance with the normative specifications. Since the manual calculation procedures for creating safety verifications are very complex and also require a lot of experience from the user, calculation tools have been created that make the application significantly more convenient and safer.

Provision of the Siemens VDMA 66413 library of characteristic values for the SISTEMA calculation tool

A calculation tool that is widely used on the market for creating safety verifications is the SISTEMA software wizard, which is offered by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV). (DGUV). With the neutral Siemens VDMA 66413 characteristic library as an XML file, Siemens provides all the characteristic data of fail-safe Siemens products that are suitable for import into SISTEMA.

A detailed description of how to import the Siemens VDMA 66413 characteristics library into SISTEMA can be found on the DGUV website (SISTEMA Cookbook 5).

Safety Evaluation in the TIA Selection Tool as a practical alternative to SISTEMA

With Safety Evaluation in the TIA Selection Tool, Siemens offers a free and convenient tool for creating safety certificates in accordance with the IEC 62061 and ISO 13849-1 standards. The advantage is that components for functional safety are specified in the TIA Selection Tool (TST) at an early planning and selection stage, and their safety characteristic values are stored there. The safety evaluation in the TIA Selection Tool also offers the option of importing device parameters from other manufacturers and using them there for the calculation (assuming the manufacturer provides the library).

Important note (disclaimer)!

The information given in this article refers to the sources of information valid at the time of publication. For safety applications, the currently valid standards and regulations as well as the current legally binding manual information of the modules used must generally be observed. Therefore, there is no liability claim for the contents of this article, especially since changes in the standards as well as errors and mistakes cannot be excluded.

The contents described in this article refer to the time of preparation (status: September 2021).

With Best Regards,

SIMATIC International Technical Support Hub