Schmersal develops and produces an extraordinary wide range of high-quality switchgears for the protection of machines and plants in industrial automation and lift industry.
In the "Safe Switching and Monitoring" section, you will find an extraordinary large programme of safety-related switchgears for the position monitoring of guard doors and the non-contact protection of hazardous zones and danger points, as well as safety switching appliances for special applications.
In the "Safe Signal Processing" section, you will find safety relay modules for various safety technology applications (e.g. for emergency stop and guard door monitoring) as well as centralised programmable safety controllers and decentralised field bus systems, e.g. a modular concept for safety functions control on small machines.
In the "Automation Technology" section, you will find switching appliances for the mechanical position detection in various fields of application as well as (safety) sensors with different operating principles; this section furthermore includes a comprehensive programme of command and signalling devices.
The "Ex Switchgear" includes switchgears, which can be used - in accordance with the harmonised standards - in areas with potentially explosive atmospheres due to the presence of gas and dust, e.g. position switches, safety switches and safety sensors with non-contact operating principle.
In the "Lift Switchgears" section, you will find lift switchgears for various applications in the shaft pit, the lift car and the machine room: floor and fine-adjustment switches, positive-break door contacts, position switches, magnetic reed switches, remote alarm systems as well as the USP ultrasonic elevator positioning system.
Safety light curtains and light grids
Current innovations:
The AZ 16 is to many companies the safety switch par excellence: the Schmersal Group already has produced many millions of this series and the switch is still highly popular. Schmersal now presents a new safety sensor, which will help many users make the step from electromechanical to non-contact guard door monitoring. Although the CSS 16 has the latest sensor technology inside, its basic size is exactly the same as that of the AZ 16 – with this particular difference that in the CSS devices the mechanical actuator is replaced by a compact target.
The AZ 16 is to many companies the safety switch par excellence: the Schmersal Group already has produced many millions of this series and the switch is still highly popular. Schmersal now presents a new safety sensor, which will help many users make the step from electromechanical to non-contact guard door monitoring. Although the CSS 16 has the latest sensor technology inside, its basic size is exactly the same as that of the AZ 16 – with this particular difference that in the CSS devices the mechanical actuator is replaced by a compact target.
The CSS technology, which was developed and patented by Schmersal, enables a bidirectional communication between the sensor and the target and therefore offers distinctive advantages. The "Coded Safety Sensor" (CSS) principle provides for long switching distances. The sensors tolerate a misaligned actuation and emit a warning when the actuator is operating near the hysteresis range. In this way, the user is informed e.g. about guard door misalignments in an early stage, as a result of which he can timely readjust the door. In this way, the operating principle offers a high immunity to interference as well as high protection against tampering.
The CSS technology furthermore offers the advantage that a series-wired chain of up to 31 self-monitored devices (the number depends on the series used) can be set up, which meets the requirements of control category 4 or Performance Level e to EN 13849-1. The various connection variants and the comprehensive range of wiring accessories enable an elegant IP 67 connection to the machine without detriment to the safety level. The machine builder no longer needs an individual safety-monitoring module for each safety switchgear, which saves costs.
The CSS technology moreover makes additional information available, which can be used for diagnostic purposes for instance, thus increasing the availability of the machine. For the gathering, transfer and evaluation of the diagnostic-relevant signals, a new generation of gateways with interfaces for different field bus systems now is available.
All these advantages are now also available for existing machines, without the builder needing to change the mechanical construction: an AZ 16 can be smoothly replaced with a CSS 16. In this way, the machine builder can offer his customers the guard door monitoring feature with non-contact operating principle as an option and the machine users will quickly get acquainted with the additional possibilities of the non-contact position monitoring of guard doors.
