Omron unveils new automation products at PPMA show

NA machine interface (HMI)

Designed following careful analysis of real applications and customer requirements, the new NA machine interface makes it fast and easy for users to implement dynamic, intuitive user interfaces that help boost productivity and minimise downtime by giving detailed real-time and historical insights into machine operation.

The new NA machine interface is programmed using Omron's comprehensive Sysmac Studio development system, which covers all areas of automation, including logic, motion, vision and safety. This means that the NA machine interface can be programmed alongside the other automation system components, which speeds development and reduces programming complexity.

Other features include:

• Intelligent Application Gadgets (IAGs) for common applications, which operate in a similar way to function blocks.
• Pre-configured animated objects, such as tanks with cut outs to show levels, and valves that show open and closed states, as well as graphics for basic machine parts, including winders, flow-wrappers, multi-head weighing units and many more.
• A multi-level authentication and security system, providing access to the machine interface that can be controlled on a user-by-user basis.
• Powerful multimedia facilities that provide machine views that are understandable at a glance, which can include videos showing how to perform particular procedures, documentation in PDF format that can never get lost and which can be accessed instantly whenever it is needed.

Expectia FH vision system

Also on display is the new Expectia FH high-speed compact vision system that is claimed to boast the highest image capture and processing speeds in its class - operating ten times faster than conventional systems. It also offers seamless integration with all popular brands of PLCs, motion controllers and robotic control systems.

Designed for fast, efficient operation at every stage from image capture to data output, the new FH vision system is specifically intended for applications in high-speed manufacturing environments and features a new and exceptionally efficient vision algorithm, high-speed image bus, four-core processing and fast EtherCAT communications.

E3S-DB transparent object sensor

The E3S-DB transparent-object sensor, specifically designed for the food and beverage industry, offers superior detection of objects such as glass bottles, PET bottles, transparent trays or packaging film, and is said to represent a new benchmark in industrial sensing for transparent object detection.

To meet the trend towards the use of thin PET bottles in the beverage industry, E3S-DB sensors apply a technique known as P-Opaquing that offers increased detection stability through special polarising filters for PET objects. A further advanced feature automatically compensates for changes in light level caused by ambient conditions, or contamination.

To enable high-precision detection and positioning on conveyors where there can be very small gaps between bottles, the E3S-DB is also available in narrow-beam models.

Automation platform

Experts are also on hand to demonstrate how seamless integration on the open Sysmac automation platform can cut lead times for machine builders, while allowing them and end users to keep their technology options open. A Delta robot will also be in operation on the stand, illustrating how the complementary technologies can be controlled through Sysmac.

Karl Walker, Omron's Product Marketing Manager for Automation, states: "Machine builders, like their customers, are increasingly looking for 'plug and play' integration of automation technologies, and Sysmac allows configurations to be easily modified or expanded. Sysmac integrates motion, logic sequencing, vision, robotics, safety, data management, networking and machine visualisation, all in the same programming environment - it really makes machine automation a breeze to implement and operate."

Traditionally, higher flexibility expectations have meant longer software programming times and higher costs. "But Omron's use of a single Integrated Development Environment for software configuration and greater flexibility in programming languages mean that software development times have been dramatically cut," says Walker. "Our goal would be to halve them, which would represent a massive cost saving for machine builders."

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