CC-Link open comms has
played a key role in the
refurbishment of a massive
overhead crane at the EMZ
foundry in Ukraine, boosting
productivity and giving energy
savings such that payback on
control system investment
will be a matter of months.

EMZ opted for CC-Link,
an open field device level
network that provides high
speed deterministic comms,
linking a range of automation
technologies over a single
cable. It is suitable for
machine, cell or process
control in manufacturing
and production industries.

The project was a six axis
drive system and engineers,
CSC Automation identified
Mitsubishi drives as having
dedicated crane drive
software. It was decided to
fulfil all processing
requirements through a single
Mitsubishi Q-series PLC, and
to provide operator
information through one
main and two secondary
HMIs. A regenerative power
converter enables the crane
to harvest and store electrical
energy that would normally
be part of the system losses.

All these field devices are
connected individually onto
the CC-Link network, with
no need for complicated
interfacing.