Safety Light Curtains Learn to Talk: Pilz Puts IO-Link Safety Inside a Protective Barrier
Published on 10/11/2026 at 20:30 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Factory floors are getting chattier. Lights that once merely illuminated work areas now flash status updates, and protective sensors are turning into data sources rather than simple tripwires — a shift that touches everything from metal 3D printing to heavy-duty logistics.
When illumination becomes a message
LED2WORK has built its business around the idea that light should do more than help people see. In the GMP300 metal 3D printer from manufacturer GROB, the company's TUBELED_40 II RGB-W lamp displays process states directly on the machine, giving operators an at-a-glance read on what the equipment is doing.
The same logic applies to intralogistics. On heavy-load automated guided vehicles (AGVs), LED2WORK signalling components show the vehicle's current movement and operating status within the space. The TUBELED_25 RGB-W IO-Link used for this purpose can be flexibly parameterised and diagnosed, which means light and colour states can be linked digitally to higher-level machine and process information — and made intuitively readable for operating staff.
Pilz claims a world first in optoelectronic protection
Running alongside these visual developments, optoelectronic safety monitoring is advancing too. Pilz has introduced the PSENopt II Advanced safety light curtain, which the company says is the first device of its kind anywhere to feature IO-Link Safety.
Beyond conventional OSSD switching outputs, the unit continuously supplies live data as well as safe individual beam data. That sensor information already helps users during alignment and commissioning, and it opens the door to integrated applications such as automated object measurement or material flow monitoring.
To head off unnecessary downtime in linked production sequences, the light curtain offers protective field functions including muting and blanking. Its mechanical design targets demanding industrial environments: shock and collision resistance of up to 50 g, with personal protection maintained up to Performance Level e under applicable safety standards.
A fire, a rebuild, and a clean slate
Not every safety upgrade happens incrementally. Sometimes an unexpected event forces a plant to rethink its infrastructure from the ground up.
As media reports indicate, the services company Elis is using the aftermath of a major fire at its Landstuhl site as an opportunity for a fundamental redesign — rebuilding the operation larger than it was before the blaze.
Such reconstruction projects regularly give industrial companies the chance to weave modern safety requirements, fire protection concepts and digitally monitored production structures into the factory layout from scratch.
