Digital drives are designed to fit into complete motion control systems but, increasingly, they are also combining solutions for positioning and I/O control with the drive itself. Because drives are adding more motion/logic control capabilities, they are simplifying the design of servo systems, especially systems with a low number of axes. These solutions can combine the drive and motion controller in a single package — which reduces wiring, simplifies setup and limits the size/cost of total solutions. With two devices in a single enclosure, drives with integrated control functions reduce the overall size of components in the control cabinet.
Even when the drive and motion controller are not combined physically, there is close coordination to achieve the same kind of overall systems performance. High speed network communications between the drive and controller are enabling these solutions to provide coordinated motion, camming, electronic gearing and registration control.
COMPLETE MACHINE CONTROL IN A DRIVE
SIMOTION D from Siemens Production Machines is a compact solution that combines drive control, motion control and PLC functionality in a single drive. SIMOTION D is a solution that allows a drive to control an entire machine.
In addition to drive control (servo, vector and VHz), coordinated motion and logic control, SIMOTION D also handles other technology requirements like temperature, force and pressure control. With a flexible backplane, DRIVE-CliQ, drive components may be separated (rectifier, inverter and encoder) by up to 100 yards. Users also get the advantages of plug-and-play functionality with automatic component recognition. SIMOTION D is ideal for the power and flexibility of Ethernet for engineering, motion control, distributed IO, HMI or open socket TCP/IP communication with PROFINET. It provides a simple programming environment using PLCOpen function blocks.
Due to its compact design, the drive is ideal for compact machinery and distributed automation architectures where many axes are required.
MULTI-AXIS CONTROLLER AND DRIVE PLATFORM
The combination of a multi-axis controller and servo drives from Festo offers a flexible solution that can meet application needs for motion control and I/O. Four models of the SEC-SDD drives offer continuous output currents ranging from 2.4 to 14A RMS/phase operating at 115 or 230V ac.
The SEC-AC-SMLC motion controller is a fully integrated control solution providing hardware and software building blocks that are engineered to plug together and work as a system. This allows engineers to focus on solving their application instead of integrating control components. The digital drives in the system make automatic loop adjustments based on motor and load inertia settings using the ServoWire® Pro configuration tool to simplify servo system tuning.
CoDeSys is the programming platform for the SMLC, and is based on the IEC61131-3 standard which offers a suite of programming languages. PLCopen Motion function blocks are available for both motion and administrative functions.
SIMPLIFIED DRIVE CONFIGURATION AND MAINTENANCE
A new integrated drive configuration feature available in RSLogix 5000 v.16 software from Rockwell Automation allows users of Allen-Bradley PowerFlex drives to consolidate drive configuration, operation and maintenance into a single environment. Called “premier integration,” this capability reduces programming, installation and overall costs by minimizing the number of software tools required. It also provides faster startup, improved accuracy and easier drive system maintenance.
Integrated drive configuration allows users to configure both controller and drive network connections from a single location, which minimizes the potential for errors when defining the EtherNet/IP or ControlNet network I/O. The feature eliminates the task of individually programming the required parameters and tags. Users no longer have to complete complicated programming functions when installing PowerFlex drives or constantly refer back to user manuals for specific parameter and tag information. Drive configuration data is saved as part of the RSLogix project file and also stored in the Logix controller.
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