Electronic-Key-System EKS

Our company installed electronical keys of EUCHNER company in the company from Wałbrzych Economic Zone at the turn of March and Aprill of 2006. The installation comprised seven assembly stands.

Keys are portable memories. They hold 116 bytes of data. It is enough to save a great quantity of information for example: (machine stand time, good and faulty production etc). The EUCHNER company offers devices for reading and saving the "keys" with three interfaces: RS232, USB, ProfiBUS. On assembly stands we used readers with ProfiBUS connection. System administrator has been equipped with a reader with USB interface and a free software for saving and reading the key. In our application the key memory has been divided into 3 sections: name and surname of the operator - 30 bytes, number of employee - 5 bytes, access code- 1 byte. The controller reads only 6 bytes. Name and surname is used only for fast identification of the key owner. Keys are cooperating with SIMATIC C7 controllers. The investor wanted the keys to limit the access of the operators to working parameters of the devices. Three access levels were implemented in the controllers The first one makes it possible to restart a machine after it produces a faulty element. Inserting a key with the second access level enables a worker to change the working parameters of a machine. The person who owns the key with the third level of access has administrative abilities. He can add new operators who will be able to operate a device. It qurantees that the device will not be operated by individuals who are not trained or who do not have adequate qualification. Keys are availabe in 5 coulors. Thus, each colour can be ascribed to different functions or levels of access, like it was done for the client.

We have rebuilt the control system on one of the assembly stands. LOGO!Controller has been replaced with SIMATIC C7 635 controllers.

Data from the key is read out automatically after it is inserted into the reader. There is no need to perform additional activities. The program of the controller checks first if its data block contains the worker ID written on the key. If so, then depending on the access level written in the key, it allows performing different actions

Programming a key with a computer is very simple and the corresponding software is free. The possibility of saving the data into the key using the ProfiBUS interface allows saving data on-line from the controller to the key. It can be either statistical or any other data. Keys can also be used as recipe carriers. More information on EKS system can be found at:
http://www.euchner.com/en/products/manmachine/eks/index.htm