ARTICLE

Enabling smart manufacturing

04 August 2016

As well as having more than 350 different models incorporating IO-Link and two million IO-Link- enabled devices, ifm electronic has the ability to feed all the diagnostic data to the ERP system in parallel to the machine control to enable smart manufacturing.

The IO-Link masters that do this are designated AY1000 and AY1020, using the letter Y to indicated the pathway of data from the field devices, shared between the plc and the IT system, the Y path. Until now all sensor signals had to be sent by the PLC to higher-level systems. This is now done via a parallel communication path (Y path). The PLC program remains unchanged.  The AY masters have a communication port for the machine control (AY100: ProfiNet or AY1020: EtherNet/IP) and a second port for the server network (Ethernet 10/100 MBit, TCP/IP, Modbus TCP).  

This allows the machine control plc to use sensor data while simultaneously the machine status, events and diagnostics can be logged in real time. Productivity data is live and maintenance scheduled as needed. IO-Link allows each and every sensor to be identified, and the master stores parameters to make swap-out much easier.  If a recipe or an operation is changed, the plc can reconfigure any IO-Link device in an instant.

The AY IO-Link master operates as an input/output card with a total of 20 I /O, of which 8 are for IO-Link devices and the rest for binary signals. All signals can be easily transmitted to compatible controllers via the standard fieldbuses EtherNet /IP or
Profinet.

 
OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
FEATURED SUPPLIERS
 
 
TWITTER FEED