Product category:
Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls
News Release from: Inmoco | Subject: Elau PacDrive
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 May 2003
Motion control system is optimised for
packaging
The Elau PacDrive system is the key element for machine builders implementing the latest, cost saving, Gen3 packaging machines.
The Elau PacDrive system is the key element for machine builders implementing the latest, cost saving, Gen3 packaging machines PacDrive provides seamlessly integrated software and hardware solution that cuts machine development times by up to 50% and whole machine life cycle costs by up to 30%, while, at the same time, increasing productivity by an average of 25%
The PacDrive system provides a pre-engineered solution, optimised specifically for packaging machinery applications, especially the latest machines on the market, which provide the highest return on net assets as a result of employing Gen3 control architectures.
When an OEM uses PacDrive by Elau it is faster, less expensive, and more flexible than putting together a solution comprised of a number of multivendor control systems.
To the end user the benefits are equally important, as machines using a PacDrive system provide the necessary tools to integrate easily into highly synchronous packaging lines.
Taken over the course a machine's life, a machine designed with PacDrive will lower the total cost of ownership as the software development tools and commissioning packages are designed always with the end user in mind.
The PacDrive system employs a distributed motion control architecture.
Most importantly, however, a single CPU functions as the overall machine controller.
HMI, motion control, PLC, OPC server and network connections are all integrated on a single processor facilitating high speed synchronisation of I/O and motion through software interfaces.
The facility for distributed processing available in the PacDrive architecture is a key enabler for many of the capabilities available in this system.
Specifically, the Sercos digital drive network is employed to offload the main CPU from high- speed loop closure.
Also important for machine performance is the ability of the PacDrive architecture to limit servo drive responsibility to closing position, velocity, and torque loops.
Real time calculations for path generation, such as cam profiles, are highly computational intensive, but this is all solved centrally in the PacDrive main CPU.
Centralising processing in this way enables the system to dynamically make cam or other motion path changes on the fly.
In addition, this type of architecture distributes control functions in a manner that simply preserves network bandwidth, thereby enabling the maximum number of servo nodes to be extended.
To the engineer deploying the PacDrive system, the only programming knowledge required is IEC61131-3.
Elau has provided the necessary software functionality built into the IEC 61131-3 languages to address mechanical modelling, path planning, kinematics, real-time motion and I/O control using a library of standard IEC motion function blocks.
The role of software, however, does not end in the controllers, but addresses the importance of software support tools for startup and installation assistance by building them into the PacDrive solutions.
The PacDrive system is a truly international product, complying with a host of international standards.
With demands for standardisation in the global field of packaging technology growing stronger, this means that no other system is more qualified to achieve conformance and deliver the improvements in performance and development and life cycle costs required by both builders and users of packaging machines. Request a free brochure from Inmoco ...
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