Ethercat in Drive Engineering
The demands upon engineering with regard to fast, reliable communication are increasing rapidly. In drive engineering, where there often is a particular need to synchronize many actuators and sensors (operating at top speeds) data transfer is the key to quality - and hence to success.
The advantages of Ethercat lie in the significantly shorter cycle times compared with machine controls. Here, large reserves for the machine planner still lie dormant, and thus the transmission system will not be the speed-limiting element also in the future.
Furthermore, Ethercat is a universally standardized system.This begins with the connectors for the wiring and ends with the protocols. In addition, the user organization ETG (Ethercat Technology Group) ensures the interoperability of different manufacturers.
It is also possible to network all interfaces of an installation using Ethercat, which saves additional gateways and prevents the compatibility problems involved in this. Moreover, each additionally installed module reduces cost efficiency, safety, and speed.
The real-time behavior further enhances the potential for 'fine adjustment' of all machine parts which must operate with precision control and with short cycle times. Thus all measuring and motion processes can be improved.
The volume of data which can be transferred is another advantage of Ethercat. In addition to just controlling the hardware, all production data can flow back into the system and can be evaluated. This reduces errors and facilitates later diagnosis.
Parallel to the development of EtherCAT, a (fieldbus-independent) safety protocol has also been developed, and is available for EtherCAT as Safety over EtherCAT. This makes it possible to realize functional safety with EtherCAT according to IEC61508 (Safety Integrity Level 3).
With this, Safety over EtherCATdoes not limit transfer speed and cycle time, as EtherCAT is used as a single-channel communication medium. In doing so the transport medium is used as a 'black channel'.
Existing installations operating with fieldbusses like CANopen, DeviceNet, and Profibus can be integrated seamlessly into the EtherCAT environment via Gateways.Thus, investments in this sector are also protected and the path to the Ethercat world opens up.
Our Ethercat modules open the door to this world – quickly, cheaply, and with full development support.
