Recently, a significant moment has arrived in the development history of domestic industrial control. Inovance Technology, a leading enterprise in the domestic industrial control field, has successfully obtained two functional safety certification certificates issued by the globally recognized certification body TÜV Rheinland. Its core products of the iFA safety system, the EVO1000EF and Hi50, have received this honor, marking not only the first industrial control system in China to pass production line-level functional safety certification but also a milestone breakthrough for China in the high-end industrial safety field.
For a long time, in the large PLC market, companies like Haili and Zhongkong have actively explored and strived to secure a place, but the high-end safety PLC field has always been dominated by foreign products, leading to a “bottleneck” in technology and a high dependency on imported products in the domestic industry. Inovance’s achievement of this certification successfully fills the gap in the domestic high-end safety PLC field, taking a solid step towards the localization of key technologies.
Inovance’s iFA platform is the result of five years of independent research and development. As the first fully integrated software platform for industrial automation in China, it serves as the core hub of the FA architecture. The iFA platform achieves a full link from equipment conceptual design to final manufacturing and production, enabling fully integrated development from equipment to processes to production lines, and deeply integrates with the process standardization platform InoQuickPro and the digital platform InoCube, achieving seamless connection from OT to IT. This platform integrates design simulation, virtual debugging, production operation, and other functions, possessing powerful programming, monitoring, and control capabilities, providing strong support for factory-level interconnectivity and IoT integration, helping users meet flexible manufacturing needs.
The certified EVO1000EF safety controller and Hi50 series distributed safety I/O system are core components of the iFA platform’s safety system. The EVO1000EF safety controller supports nearly 2000 safety signal processing points and a flexible ring network architecture, with a response speed reaching milliseconds, capable of covering the entire production line’s safety interlock control, playing a key role in scenarios such as automotive welding and lithium electrode manufacturing. The Hi50 series distributed safety I/O system is not only the world’s first hot-swappable safety temperature module but also supports 32-module expansion and the collection of all signal types, operating stably in extreme environments from -20℃ to 55℃, providing reliable guarantees for safe production in high-standard industries such as automotive, semiconductor, lithium, and die-casting. Additionally, this system has won the 2025 Red Dot International Design Award, showcasing both strength and aesthetics.
It is worth mentioning that the safety system of the iFA platform complies with international standards such as IEC 61508, IEC 62061, and ISO 13849, becoming the first industrial control system in China to pass the IEC 61131-6 international standard functional safety certification, with the highest safety level reaching PL e/Cat.4/SIL 3, achieving a globally advanced level. Behind this achievement is Inovance’s significant investment in research and development over the years. In 2024 alone, Inovance’s total revenue reached 37.04 billion yuan, with a net profit of 4.29 billion yuan, and R&D investment reached 3.147 billion yuan, providing solid financial and resource support for technological breakthroughs.
At the award ceremony held in Xi’an, TÜV Rheinland highly praised Inovance’s R&D design capabilities, safety lifecycle process specifications, personnel professionalism, and management system, confirming that it has reached international first-class standards. Moreover, this certification project was completed two months ahead of schedule, far exceeding expectations. TÜV Rheinland, founded in 1866 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, has over 800 locations worldwide, employing approximately 20,000 people and possessing a global network of laboratories, holding high authority and broad influence in certification, testing, and inspection fields. Its iconic blue octagonal badge symbolizes quality and safety.
Zou Wei, Director of the FA Solutions and Products Department at Inovance, stated that this certification is a key leap for domestic safety control systems from “usable to trustworthy.” The company will continue to deepen its cooperation with TÜV Rheinland, promoting the globalization of China’s intelligent manufacturing safety standards. This successful certification provides Inovance with a “golden ticket” to enter the high-end markets of Europe and America, helping to break down international market access barriers and further expand its global business landscape, while also providing a controllable safety foundation for intelligent manufacturing scenarios, strongly supporting the safe and stable operation of industrial production and accelerating the implementation of Industry 4.0 across various industries.
Inovance’s significant breakthrough in the high-end safety PLC field demonstrates the strong capabilities of domestic industrial control equipment. In the future, as Inovance’s cooperation with TÜV Rheinland deepens, the process of globalizing China’s intelligent manufacturing safety standards is expected to accelerate, and the domestic industrial control industry will gain more voice and recognition in global competition, injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of China’s industry.