From 1st October on, Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) was approved as Nation Standard in China. The achievement was announced during the Industrial Automation Show in Shanghai, in September, with the participation of Beryl Fan, chief representative of the EtherCAT Technology Group in China, Guido Beckmann, chairman of the ETG Technical Committee, Ping Wang, general manager of Suzhou i-COW Intelligent Logistics Technology Co. Ltd, and Jinsong Ouyang, president of ITEI.
Integrated functional safety for EtherCAT and communication technologies
Chinese users require, for smart factory applications and automation projects, safety technology which has to be simplified and flexible. This solution provides integrated functional safety for EtherCAT and other communication technologies. FSoE also protects machines, which improves reliability and extends equipment lifecycle. EtherCAT has been a Chinese recommended standard since 2014. With FSoE now also reaching this official status, end users, system integrators and device manufacturers alike have the reassurance that the entire EtherCAT technology ecosystem is fully accepted in China.
Additional support for the technology
The standardization process within the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) committee SAC/TC124/SC4 was supported by Instrumentation Technology and Economy Institute (ITEI) and the Chinese EtherCAT Technology Group team. ETG has also established an FSoE conformance test center in collaboration with TÜV SÜD China at Beihang University in Beijing to provide additional support for the technology as it continues to be implemented throughout China. ETG also held a Safety over EtherCAT seminar in Shanghai, which provided detailed information about the architecture, technology, implementation and user benefits of FSoE. Both EtherCAT and FSoE are also international IEC standards, which automatically makes them nationally accepted standards in most countries.
