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Motion control platform uses Ethernet PowerLink

A Parker Hannifin - Electromechanical and Drives Division product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 21, 2008

Design and installation times are greatly reduced through the use of readily available Ethernet cabling for the interface between the servo drive and the motion controller.

Parker Hannifin has enhanced its ACR9000 family of motion controllers with the addition of two new models featuring Ethernet PowerLink communication.

The ACR9000 motion control platform uses Ethernet PowerLink technology to increase system performance and reduce overall system costs and installation time.

System design and machine installation times are greatly reduced through the use of inexpensive and readily available Ethernet cabling for the interface between the servo drive and the motion controller.

This configuration removes the need for traditional, expensive to produce +/-10V analogue control and feedback cables - often the source of problems during the commissioning process.

The compact ACR9040 is capable of controlling 16 axes of servo drive via the Ethernet PowerLink network, with interpolation of up to eight axes in any combination.

The ACR9030 offers the same functionality with the addition of up to eight axes of conventional command interfacing, for the control of traditional servo and stepper drive axes.

Both models generate position set-points which are sent to the servo drives via the Ethernet PowerLink network, providing tightly synchronised and co-ordinated multi-axis control.

The ACR9000 platform features advanced motion control functionality including high-speed registration, segmented cams, electronic gearing and a wide range of interpolation modes including linear, circular, sinusoidal, helical, elliptical, spline/NURBS and 3D arcs.

Capable of multitasking up to 24 simultaneous programs, these new controllers can act both as an Ethernet PowerLink Master and as an Ethernet gateway.

Onboard CANopen ports enhance the capability of these controllers further, permitting integration with HMI panels and remote I/O expansion modules, while the free of charge ACR-View front-end software provides easy to use tuning, configuration and diagnostic tools.

Ethernet PowerLink is a high-speed digital motion-bus network, which enables the easy interconnection of PLCs, motion controllers, drives and I/O products from a variety of automation vendors.

Utilising standard, well proven industrial Ethernet network hardware, Ethernet PowerLink combines a mix of polling and time-slicing mechanisms to provide a real-time, deterministic communications channel via a reliable, low cost and easy to install hardware platform.

Unlike other proprietary motion-bus solutions, Ethernet PowerLink is an open standard, free from patent and intellectual property ownership issues.

Parker Hannifin is just one of a number of manufacturers who are members of the Ethernet PowerLink Standardisation Group.

This multivendor support for the Ethernet PowerLink standard ensures that a wide range of automation products are available for integration into Ethernet PowerLink-based automation systems.

Find out more about this article. Request a brochure, download technical specifications and request samples here.

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