In December, the EtherCAT Technology Association (ETG) invited all of its members to its second Interoperability event, aimed at developers and manufacturers of devices that integrate Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) functionality. The event was hosted by ETG member company CODESYS, and participants attended the interoperability conference in Kempten, Germany, free of charge.

In addition to the regular EtherCAT interoperability events, since 2019, ETG has offered interoperability sessions specifically for FSoE master equipment, FSoE slave equipment, FSoE software stack and tools developer and manufacturer members.

The sheer number of attendees, 40 in total, further underscores the importance of hosting the event. During the two-day FSoE interoperability event, a total of 7 FSoE master stations and 15 FSoE slave stations implemented interoperability tests. ETG provides support for conformance testing tools for master and slave site tests with FSoE capabilities. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with ETG’s FSoE experts and discuss some open questions.

The extensive testing of safety controllers (FSoE master devices) is particularly important, concludes Dr. Guido Beckmann, head of ETG’s Safety working Group: “The enthusiastic participation in this FSoE interoperability event reflects the market acceptance and spread of FSoE technology. With more than 50 FSoE device manufacturers in ETG, it is the most widely used secure communication protocol in industrial automation. The number of security controllers that support FSoE is unique.”

EtherCAT Technology Association will also host a series of Safety over EtherCAT interoperability events in the future. For more information, please visit the ETG official website.