Industrial Ethernet comes of age

Ethernet Powerlink is currently the only available efficient method to guarantee real-time deterministic data transfer via standard Ethernet networks and components.

Ethernet Powerlink is currently the only available efficient method to guarantee real-time deterministic data transfer via standard Ethernet networks and components.

B and R has dedicated extensive resources over the past few years in the development of a wide range of Ethernet Powerlink based products which are globally available on the market today.

True real-time requirements in the micrsecond range can therefore be met which is especially important for high performance industrial applications like in motion control.

B and R is also proud to announce that for over two years, more than 20,000 Ethernet Powerlink nodes have been successfully deployed in series machines and embedded systems.

Those nodes are running reliably in rough environments, for example in injection moulding machines or packaging machines all over the world.

Typical installations are involve up to 50 axes with controllers and up to a few thousand I/O points running with 200us to 2ms cycle times with a timing deviation (jitter) of less than 1us.

Up to 240 nodes like drives, controllers, I/O, sensors and other devices can communicate peer-to-peer on one single Ethernet Powerlink network.

Ethernet Powerlink is based on the standard Ethernet chipset, which provides users the freedom of selecting from multiple vendors.

And of course, it is only a short step to Gigabit Ethernet for Ethernet Powerlink, as its technology is purely based on a software stack.

B and R?s complete range of industrial automation products features Ethernet Powerlink technology in the following areas: visualisation; motion control; I/O products; programmable logic control (PLCs); industrial PCs; and network infrastructure.

The B and R Power Panel range provides control, motion, operator interface and communications in a single device.

Seamless configuration is guaranteed by B and R?s Automation Studio software tool.

All Power Panels have standard Ethernet TCP/IP, two USB ports, one serial port onboard.

A slot for communication expansion PCI cards allows for Ethernet Powerlink real-time communications to be added to the system.

With the Ethernet Powerlink, the B and R Power Panel is able to control synchronised motion (including CAMs, gearing, linear and circular interpolation) and several hundred analogue and digital I/O points.

The B and R Acopos range provides integrated drive technology with Ethernet Powerlink in the form of flexible plug-in modules.

The Powerlink Acopos module is fully integrated in the Acopos NC Manager and allows for automatic firmware upload to the drive.

Ethernet Powerlink runs at a guaranteed 400us cycle time synchronous to the position loop controller cycle of the drive.

This adds a level of determinism previously unheard of for a real-time technology.

B and R industrial PCs with Powerlink running Automation Runtime (AR010) and Windows XP allow for revolutionary real-time control in the Windows environment.

Additionally, the B and R product range features various Ethernet Powerlink controls modules of the B and R Controls System 2003 and 2005 for real-time communication to the visualisation units as well as to the drives.

Furthermore, B and R now includes an eight-port industrial hub in its product range.

B and R started the development of Ethernet Powerlink in the late 1990s.

Customers of B and R, who have traditionally been designing machines for top notch performance, approached B and R with the request for a control solution which provides higher machine throughput and increased precision of the produced parts.

B and R very quickly realised that the bottleneck was the speed and determinism of the communication network.

From the start of the development B and R has always taken the approach to stay as close to hardware and software standards as possible.

The first systems with Ethernet Powerlink became available in 2001.

Very early on B and R realised that an important ingredient for the success of the new Ethernet Powerlink network would be the openness of the new technology.

Consequently the EPSG (Ethernet Powerlink Standardisation Group) was founded in June 2003 in Winterthur/Switzerland to focus on providing an open platform for the proliferation of the high performance real-time communication protocol.

The EPSG is an open group of leading automation and drive manufacturers, end-users, service providers and research institutes which can be joined by anybody.

Decisions are based on transparent rules.

Leading companies like ABB, B and R, Tetra Pak, Baldor, Lenze, Hirschmann are working on further development and deployment of the technology.

The past, present and future success of Ethernet itself as well as popular protocols such as TCP/IP have proven that only true open standards will survive all others.

For more information on the EPSG visit www.ethernet-powerlink.org.

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