An interview with Renate Pilz: "With safety, the right partner for automation"

Ostfildern, Nov 22, 2011. Pilz GmbH & Co. KG: New brand presence, technical challenges and energy efficiency – In an interview Renate Pilz, Managing Partner of Pilz, gives insights and outlooks into the company and the industry.

Mrs Pilz, your company is appearing at this year's SPS/IPC/DRIVES exhibition with a new image. What is the idea behind the new presence?
Renate Pilz: Pilz's new brand presence now also clearly visualises the development of Pilz into a solution supplier for all automation tasks. We now offer an extensive portfolio, beginning with individual components in the areas of sensors, controllers and drives up to automation systems and services. We thereby cover the requirements for safety and the requirements in projects aligned with standards to an equal extent. We want Pilz to be perceived more strongly as a full-service supplier of automation solutions.

Is the topic of safety less meaningful for Pilz?
No, not at all. Around the world, the Pilz brand is considered the synonym for the safety of plant and machinery. And we want it to stay that way. We want to continue expanding the term safety to a much greater extent. The yellow band that will define our Corporate Design in future stands for the 4-fold safety in automation. Technical, personal, environmental and economic – these are the four dimensions of safety that the Pilz brand offers to man, machine and environment as "Safety Ambassadors".

What does that mean for your customers?
Due to our expanded performance scope, we are able to supply complete solutions for all control functions. 'With safety', we are the right partner for all automation tasks. This begins for many customers with consultation, risk analysis and training and extends to the selection and implementation of universal solutions that combine sensors, drives and controllers.

How do you view the further technical development in automation?
The future belongs to decentralised, distributed control concepts that nonetheless allow the users a central view of the system. With our automation system PSS 4000 we are already following this path. Here we are focussing our work on additional hardware modules, software editors and complete solution packages for new areas of application. Another challenge is to organise the interface between the technology and the human to be as user-friendly as possible. We will show examples of what this can look like at the exhibition with our graphics Program Editor PASmulti.

Energy efficiency is one of the topics with which the industry is currently concerned. For good reason?
Yes, absolutely. Profitability and efficiency are becoming a lot more important in the selection of automation and drive technology – naturally always with the prerequisite that the performance and precision already achieved must be maintained. We are therefore focussing our attention increasingly on the topic of energy efficiency, for example with the development of products. An optimised system design with decentralised I/O systems hereby enable significant energy savings. The benefit for the user is as much of a motivation for us here as the protection of resources. At SPS/IPC/DRIVES, Pilz products that contribute to energy savings are marked accordingly.