Safety and sustainability go hand in hand

Engi­neering plays a key role in the cli­mate strate­gies of var­ious coun­tries across the world. The aim is to sig­nif­i­cantly reduce CO₂ emis­sions without jeop­ar­dising industry’s com­pet­i­tive­ness. More effi­cient machine processes, for example, mean that safe automa­tion solu­tions con­tribute sig­nif­i­cantly towards greater sus­tain­ability within com­pa­nies, and there­fore towards achieving cli­mate goals. Acci­dents and machine break­downs can also be avoided through the use of safety prod­ucts. This not only reduces the risk to human and machine, but also pre­vents pro­duc­tion down­times, which are often asso­ci­ated with high energy and resource con­sump­tion.

By mon­i­toring and con­trol­ling processes, safety prod­ucts can also ensure that over­loads or crit­ical plant states, such as a broken shearpin due to excess speed, are avoided. This leads to more effi­cient use of energy and mate­rials, and extends the ser­vice life of plant and machinery.

Energy storage technologies and their high level of safety

Safety solu­tions also help to pre­vent leaks and other envi­ron­men­tally dam­aging inci­dents. This is essen­tial, for example, when pro­ducing and han­dling hydrogen. The energy car­rier is a key com­po­nent in the future energy system. The pro­duc­tion of green hydrogen is expected to increase sig­nif­i­cantly in the coming years. For example, as part of its national hydrogen strategy, the German fed­eral gov­ern­ment has increased the planned elec­trol­ysis capacity for the pro­duc­tion of (green) hydrogen to almost 10 gigawatts by 2030. How­ever, the actual avail­able capacity is cur­rently sig­nif­i­cantly lower, amounting to around 66 megawatts in 2024.

Bat­teries are also regarded as a key com­po­nent for the energy tran­si­tion. Leading eco­nomic bases around the world are inten­si­fying their research into bat­teries: according to the German Asso­ci­a­tion of the Elec­trical and Dig­ital Industry, ZVEI, China is investing 750 mil­lion euros in solid-state bat­teries, the USA is bud­geting 16 bil­lion US dol­lars for bat­tery pro­duc­tion and recy­cling, while South Korea is strength­ening its bat­tery industry with 6 bil­lion euros.

Both future tech­nolo­gies, hydrogen and bat­tery, require careful han­dling and strict safety mea­sures to min­imise risks. Toxic and flam­mable gases as well as vapours can be released during bat­tery pro­duc­tion, for example, endan­gering the health of workers as well as the envi­ron­ment. Sol­vent vapours and elec­trolyte leaks also pose a sig­nif­i­cant fire and explo­sion risk. Flam­mable sol­vent vapours can be gen­er­ated, par­tic­u­larly during the elec­trodes’ drying process. Pilz con­trol sys­tems reli­ably detect gas leaks through the eval­u­a­tion of gas detec­tors. They safely mon­itor tem­per­a­ture, pres­sure, fill level, voltage and cur­rent. And in an emer­gency the sys­tems ini­tiate an emer­gency stop. They can detect faults within mil­lisec­onds and quickly ini­tiate pre-defined safety mea­sures.

For a safe, environmentally-friendly future

Pilz is actively com­mitted to a sus­tain­able future by devel­oping inno­v­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tally-friendly solu­tions for our cus­tomers and pro­viding them with indi­vidual advice and sup­port. The automa­tion com­pa­ny’s goal is to set a good example and lower its own reducible CO₂ emis­sions to zero by 2035. To achieve this goal, Pilz relies on sus­tain­able processes for the devel­op­ment, pro­duc­tion, ship­ping and recy­cling of its prod­ucts. Pilz prod­ucts stand for energy effi­ciency and quality, where each suc­ces­sive gen­er­a­tion is more energy effi­cient than the last. This also applies to the pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties, such as the new SMD lines. Pilz devel­op­ment takes into account the “Design for Envi­ron­ment” con­cept where repairability and the selec­tion of mate­rials and com­po­nents are con­cerned. In coop­er­a­tion with the Uni­ver­sity of Applied Sci­ences in Linz, the automa­tion com­pany is working inten­sively on the switch to more envi­ron­men­tally friendly plas­tics. Pro­duc­tion sites in Ger­many, Switzer­land and China help to reduce CO₂ emis­sions when deliv­ering to cus­tomers world­wide. For trans­port, Pilz relies on reusable pack­aging mate­rials and sus­tain­able trans­port options, such as bat­tery or hydrogen-pow­ered fleets.

Pilz also helps its cus­tomers create more sus­tain­able machinery with a large share of retrofit projects, because defec­tive devices can be fully repaired or indi­vidual com­po­nents replaced. Pilz estab­lished its Repair Centre as early as 2002, where defec­tive Pilz devices can be prop­erly repaired and then reused at the same quality. Around 6 000 devices per year are restored to their full func­tion­ality there. At the end of the product life­cycle, the Pilz sub­sidiaries take care of dis­posal. As a family busi­ness, inter­gen­er­a­tional action is one of Pilz’s values and the com­pany acts accord­ingly. “Because we want to pre­serve our world for our chil­dren, and our children’s chil­dren. That’s our duty”, says Susanne Kun­schert, Man­aging Partner of Pilz.