Posted to News on 25th Nov 2007, 15:30
Digital brushless servo drives gain Ethernet PowerLink
Parker Hannifin is adding Ethernet PowerLink communications to its Aries family of digital brushless servo drives, which increases system performance while decreasing overall system costs and installation time. System design and machine installation times are said to be greatly reduced through the use of inexpensive and readily available Ethernet cabling for the interface between the servo drive and the motion controller. This configuration removes the need for traditional, expensive +/-10V analogue control and feedback cables - often the source of problems during the commissioning process - and also increases the reliability and noise immunity of the control system.
The Aries drives operate in interpolated position mode, receiving co-ordinated position set-point commands over the Ethernet PowerLink network from a master motion controller. When used with Parker's new ACR9030/9040 family of motion controllers, the Aries drives offer the added benefits of auto-tuning, drive setup and full real-time diagnostics, all via the Ethernet PowerLink network using the ACR-View front-end software. Available with continuous power ratings of 400W, 750W and 1.3kW, these drives operate direct online from a 120-240V AC single-phase supply and also feature a logic keep-alive facility. Both rotary and linear brushless servo motor technologies are supported, as are both standard quadrature and Endat encoder feedback systems.
Ethernet PowerLink is a high-speed digital motion-bus network that enables PLCs, motion controllers, drives and I/O products from a variety of automation vendors to be connected with ease. Utilising standard, well-proven industrial Ethernet network hardware, Ethernet PowerLink combines a mix of polling and time-slicing mechanisms to provide a real-time, deterministic communications channel via a reliable, low-cost and easy-to-install hardware platform. Ethernet PowerLink is an open standard, free from patent and intellectual property ownership issues. Parker Hannifin is just one of a number of manufacturers that are members of the Ethernet PowerLink Standardisation Group. Such multi-vendor support for the Ethernet PowerLink standard ensures that a wide range of automation products are available for integration into Ethernet PowerLink-based automation systems.
