June 29, 2016 – Bedrock Automation has announced that its Bedrock Open Secure Automation platform is in full compliance to Military Standard 461 (MIL-STD-461F) and International Electrical Commission 61000 (IEC 61000) for electromagnetic pulse (EMP) resistance.
Dayton Brown, an independent military and industrial testing firm conducted test RS105 on a fully operational Bedrock system. The test involved repeated 50,000 V/m nanosecond EMP strikes to emulate the energy of a High Altitude Electromechanical Pulse (HEMP), as would be created by an atmospheric nuclear detonation. The Bedrock system performed without error and without consequential damage during and after the test, through seven complete consecutive test runs.
Dayton Brown tested the system in a configuration that represents a real use setting. The test system deployed a loaded backplane and Bedrock Secure I/O, Power, and Controller Modules, with copper and fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet communications. Where MIL-STD 461 compliance requires withstanding only 5 blasts, the Bedrock system survived more than 30 blasts without faltering.
Along with cyber security, EMP compliance was designed into the Bedrock system at the outset. Bedrock engineers achieved it by incorporating numerous detailed design elements, including the creation and deployment of a pinless backplane, which eliminates the possibility of pins as antennae to absorb and disperse energy. As a result, EMP protection is standard to every Bedrock control system.
