Patent ID: 8502647

Claim:
A system for controlling user access to a machine tool comprising: a machine tool, the machine tool having: one or more operation functions, the one or more operation functions being accessible by a user only after authorization of the user specifically for one or more selected operation functions of the one or more operation functions by receipt of predetermined authorization data from a wireless mobile data carrier; a selection device for selecting one or more of the operation functions by the user; a reception device for receiving data from the wireless mobile data carrier, the reception device comprising a reading device configured to read authorization data and identification data received from wireless mobile data carrier; an allocation device for allocating the one or more operation functions to authorization levels, the allocation device only being operable by the user if the user has a predetermined master authorization level in a hierarchic order of the authorization levels, the hierarchic order codified by the authorization data; a determining device for determining, on the basis of the authorization data received from the wireless mobile data carrier, one or more authorized operation functions the user is authorized to perform of the one or more operation functions; and an access control device set up to control the access to the machine tool with respect to the one or more selected operation functions and grant the user access to only those of the one or more selected operation functions that the user is authorized to perform according to an authorization level codified by the authorization data received from the wireless mobile data carrier; and a plurality of wireless mobile data carriers each having a read-only storage device in which authorization data and identification data for identifying a single wireless mobile data carrier of said plurality of wireless mobile data carriers are stored and a radio frequency transponder configured to transmit the authorization data and the identification data to the reception device of the machine tool, said plurality of wireless mobile data carriers including a first set of at least one or more wireless mobile data carriers configured to transmit authorization data codifying a first authorization level and a second set of at least one wireless mobile data carrier configured to transmit authorization data codifying a second authorization level, wherein the first authorization level includes the predetermined master level for allocating operation functions to authorization levels, whereas the second authorization level does not include the predetermined master authorization level.