Cost and time reductions do not start with the production process but in the development process of new machine tools and production systems. According to Guenter Schmitz, MD of Gauteng-based Flexible Electronic Systems, the increasing complexity of processes has to contend with product life cycles that remain the same or are shortened, leading to demands for more compressed development cycles. Simple and consistent integration of the drive into the machine concept is therefore critical.
“Along with increased expectations for speed, precision and flexibility, the topic of safety systems in the context of personal and machine safety is becoming increasingly important,” he explains. “In order to achieve maximum availability whilst maintaining the required productivity, the highest process safety is demanded and the interaction of safety-relevant components within the safety chain is critical here.”
An example of the safety functionality incorporated into a drive controller is Safe Torque Off, a feature which limits the drive to a safe speed or safe standstill says Schmitz. “The drive controller itself thus becomes part of the safety concept and is even more deeply integrated into the overall drive design.”
The latest ServoOne High Performance servo system from LUST aims at satisfying the most demanding requirements for dynamic response and smoothness in machine tools and production systems.
It does this by incorporating innovative control algorithms, a variety of modern realtime communications interfaces and comprehensive safety functionality. Well thought-out control algorithms and flexible encoder interfaces permit operation with a wide spectrum of motors, from synchronous servomotors through asynchronous motors to linear and torque motors.
To incorporate the control performance of the ServoOne into a wide variety of automation solutions, communication interfaces are available as option cards. In addition to CANopen and Profibus, SERCOS II and EtherCAT protocols are available for rapid synchronised multi-axis movements. Both SERCOS III and Profinet are in the pipeline for the ServoOne.
For application development ServoOne has a standardised IEC 61131 programming system and a wealth of motion control libraries.
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