Distributed motion control is driven by the dilemma of power conversion and control issues. With concerns regarding flexibility, efficiency, and cost, Brenton Engineering created a new line of side-loading case packers utilizing a decentralized, or distributed, approach to motion control. This innovation allows manufacturers to take advantage of the intelligence of today’s drives. The new line of motion control case packers offers speed as well as a simple, all-servo design which reduces any complexities of the machinery. Removing pneumatics and over 200 parts, not only is the new line simple but it is also more cost effective. In addition, the conventional servo system that once comprised this machinery has been cut in half to create an integrated motor and drive, meaning less space is required. Brenton offers a Bosch Rexroth IndraDrive Mi integrated servomotor and drive-amplifier unit that mounts onto the new line of machines. The units have been hardened and designed to dissipate heat outside of the control cabinet. To further improve this system, the control cabinets are 25 percent smaller and consume fewer filters and 25 percent less energy for air conditioning. When manufacturers brought their concerns to Brenton, they set to work to establish a solution. In addition, the distributed approach eliminates any clutter on the new case packer. This is accomplished by using new hybrid cables. Now, one cable runs from the new machine’s electrical cabinet and is daisy-chained to each motor-and-drive unit to provide power and communications. With a savings of about 80 percent, the hybrid cables reduced the cabling on each machine. Other than the discussed footprint reduction, advantages of the decentralizing include less cost. The savings available to manufactures are possible because of less cabling and energy consumption. The required cooling for the cabinet is lowered in addition to the modularity and daisy-chaining, which permit recouping energy losses. Multi-Ethernet-based master communications along with safety zonestechnology and distributed field-line I/O, IEC 61131-3 compliant motion logic in the drive, are available on the new line of side-loading case packers. These controllers offer an optional safety onboard in an effort to provide customers with a choice of having the safety I/Os go directly to each axis to create separate safety zones or have one central safety zone that includes the complete system. An example of this would be creating many safety zones in a packaging machine. Once the zones are in place, an operator can stop one section as opposed to stopping the entire machine. There are numerous considerations when < a href="http://www.brentonengineering.com/">choosing whether to decentralize or not. Because these applications require a high degree of synchronization, control is an important aspect of the calculus. Therefore, questions whether to centralize or distribute comes down to power conversion and control and communication. Decentralization is best suited for low power ranges—less than five kW in servomotor applications. When power rating exceeds that threshold, the drives are too big to be put on a motor in many applications.
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case packer, case packing machinery, distributed motion control, decentralization, zonetechnology, servomotor,
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