Modular positioning systems offer flexibility for machine tool builders –
now also available with IO-Link
In contrast, halstrup-walcher, a global market leader in the area of positioning systems, puts its trust in extremely compact units, which are available in a very extensive range of modular systems:
- Torques from 1 to 25 Nm
- Selection of IP protection classes: IP 54, IP 65, IP 68
- Selection of on-board bus communication protocols: Profibus, Profinet, CANopen, Ethernet-IP, Modbus, Sercos, EtherCat, DeviceNet, Powerlink and IO-Link
The key advantage: when you change the IP protection class or the bus communication, all the relevant connection dimensions remain the same. This enables the machine builder to “convert“ an existing machine to the customer‘s wishes extremely quickly.
Of the field buses, IO-Link plays a particularly important role. Actually, IO-Link is not a bus communication but a “peer to peer“ connection which bridges the final metre between a field bus and the sensors / actuators. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to use the same communication (IO-Link) for the sensor and actuator in every version of the machine while the gateway permits the use of any
customer-specific field bus. This approach is an optimum solution for accommodating the wide range of sensors and actuators.
Until now, IO-Link has been used predominantly by sensor manufacturers. The inclusion of IO-Link in “PSE / PSS / PSW“ positioning systems makes halstrup-walcher the first supplier of decentralised actuator systems that also supports this concept. The system provides the best possible adaptability in terms of the criteria described above under “Level 2“ – and simultaneously offers optimum support for the fast, precision positioning tasks stated under “Level 1“. The following details will be of interest to practical engineers:
- The PSE / PSS / PSWpositioning system with IO-Link is a single cable solution that uses the same cable for the power supply and data transmission. Standard, unshielded M12 cables can be used.
- The so-called “time stamp“ process is supported. This guarantees that the format changeover is always started at the desired time and the control module can transmit the corresponding run commands in good time – the PSE / PSS / PSW positioning system with IO-Link is then even able to start when the time stamp has been reached. This is very useful, especially for synchronising the start of format changeover processes.
