Pilz Light Curtain Becomes First to Send Certified Single-Beam Data Over IO-Link Safety
Published on 10/09/2026 at 23:10 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Industrial safety specialist Pilz has unveiled a light curtain that, according to the company, is the first anywhere to deliver both live and safety-rated single-beam data over IO-Link Safety. The product, called PSENopt II Advanced, was reported by industry portal industrie.de on 08.10.2026.
The development matters beyond the spec sheet: it widens how optoelectronic protective devices can be folded into automated production environments. Alongside the IO-Link Safety route, the unit still supports conventional operation through fail-safe switching outputs, or OSSD.
Faster alignment, easier commissioning
Streaming continuous live data is meant to take the friction out of installing and running machine guards. During mounting and adjustment, the system leans on companion software, the PSENopt II Configurator. That tool turns the incoming data into a practical aid — speeding up alignment of the optoelectronic protective device and smoothing the commissioning process.
Evaluating individual beams opens a second front in production workflows. Because that single-beam analysis is carried out in a safety-rated manner, the curtain can do more than pinpoint interruptions inside a defined protective field; it can also take on object measurement tasks using its own sensor array.
A wide functional repertoire, built to take a hit
The system covers a broad range of operating modes and safety functions for industrial use. These include established techniques such as muting, which temporarily bypasses the protective field, partial muting, and blanking for masking out fixed or moving machine parts.
Reduced Resolution, Floating and application-specific zone configurations round out the feature set, allowing flexible adaptation to changing workflows.
On the normative side, the light curtain protects operators up to the requirements of Performance Level e. The hardware is also built for punishing conditions: it offers mechanical robustness of up to 50 g against collisions and shock loads, cutting the risk of spurious failures caused by mechanical vibration while a plant is running.
