Innovations Day: third take also OK
February 25 witnessed the third edition of Innovations Day, the much awaited and exclusive event dedicated to B&R technological innovations, which saw the participation of 120 machine builders. The event was a repeat success of the previous editions, confirming it as an opportunity for automation professionals to swap info and gain further insight as to the solutions on offer.
With 7 technical insights presentations and live demos, 150 square meters of exhibition area and live demo stations, participants were able to assess the potential benefits of B&R’s new technologies on their plant automation, as well as share and discuss present and new challenges in terms of performance, safety, productivity, commissioning times and operating costs with the developers. The event gathered together important stakeholders in the world of research and industry, including Comau Robotics (who presented the full range of robot integrated within the automation system, thanks to the special mappfunctions) and Laboratorio LIAM (who presented the results its benchmark on the software development process for the evaluation of the new mapp technology).
Technologies on show
Mapp Technology is revolutionizing the development of automation software applicatives. Via a library of modular, tested and ready-to-use function blocks, to develop an application, the designer simply selects the number of modules available. Once the basic functions have been realized, without worrying about their debugging, the designer can focus on the machine processes, applying existing knowhow to add value to the final system. This new way of creating software improves system reliability and ease of maintenance, reducing development times by up to 67%. Motion Control and ACOPOS P3 is an important evolution of the servo drive, which reaches new standards of compactness and power density. This servo unit, with integrated safety functions, is able to control 1, 2 or 3 axes with a power density of 4 A per liter. ACOPOS P3 enables hitherto unachieved dynamics, combining high accuracy and minimal sampling time (50 ms per the entire controller cascade). The 3 axial housing is as compact as a conventional single-axis drives; hence the amount of space required in the control cabinet can be reduced by 69%.
Industrial PCs and human-machine interfaces. The new Automation PC 2100 and Panel PC 2100 are compact and modular control and display units, providing great computing power. They can be combined with different screen sizes and formats. The modularity and compactness of these devices does not compromise the performance and quality of the interfaces provided.
Integrated Safety. The new controls integrated safety solutions comply with the EU Machinery Directive and safety standards in force in any part of the world. The X20 family controllers with integrated I/O interface can for example be added to the SafeLOGIC X20SL8101 controller. The I/O system integrated in the controller supports both safety I/O and conventional X20 modules. The same drives, like the latest ACOPOS P3, offer SLT (Safe Limited Torque) and RSP (Remanent Safe Position) functionalities.
Advanced algorithms for motion control. These are processed by the drive to solve, in autonomy inside the drive, complex technical problems, without resorting to the general machine control CPU, improving the performance of the entire system, even in the presence of critical dynamics. Although the algorithms are extremely complex, they are presented in an accessible form, guiding the user in choosing the correct configuration parameters and simplifying the use of the same.
