Introduction

"Competition is good for business" – this free market maxim is almost always true, since healthy competition stimulates continual product improvements regarding quality as well as cost-effectiveness.  However, safety-oriented software and hardware development is a special case where this rule may not apply. That's because manufacturers in a market economy are faced with high investment risk: there are considerable development costs with a comparatively small sales potential.  

Hence, the automation sector has long been calling for a universal safety protocol, i.e. one that would give all manufacturers a solid economic base for all further development of safety-oriented products. 

With openSAFETY, the EPSG introduced the world's first 100% open and license-free safety protocol. Thanks to the total independence of openSAFETY, the technology can be used for all fieldbus systems, industrial Ethernet applications or industry-specific communication solutions. The open source license of this TÜV-certified protocol stack ensures that the technology is a very secure investment for all users.