Patent ID: 8058605

Claim:
A light grid arrangement for safeguarding a hazardous area, comprising: a first and a second sensor part arranged at a spatial distance from one another, each sensor part having a plurality of transmitting elements for generating transmitted beams and a plurality of receiving elements for receiving the transmitted beams, such that a plurality of transmitted beams in opposite directions are formed between the sensor parts, and each sensor part having a plurality of evaluation circuits coupled to the receiving elements of the respective sensor part, with each evaluation circuit being designed to generate a switch-off signal in a manner dependent on the respectively coupled receiving elements, and a control unit coupled to the evaluation circuits, the control unit being configured to generate a redundant enable signal as a function of the switch-off signals, wherein a first evaluation circuit in each sensor part is coupled to a first number of the receiving elements, wherein a further evaluation circuit in each sensor part is coupled to a different number of the receiving elements, wherein the first and the further evaluation circuit in each sensor part are coupled to one another via a first line connection in order to form a series arrangement of evaluation circuits, wherein the series arrangement has an output coupled to the control unit in order to transmit the switch-off signals to the control unit in a manner dependent on all the receiving elements coupled to the series arrangement, and wherein the plurality of evaluation circuits in each sensor part are further connected to a common data bus connection, which is also connected to the control unit.