Parker Hannifin has enhanced its ARIES family of digital brushless servo drives with the addition of Ethernet PowerLink communications.
The ARIES drive platform utilises Ethernet PowerLink technology to increase system performance while decreasing 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 produces ±10V analogue control and feedback cables - often the source of problems during the commissioning process - and also increases the reliability and noise immunity of the whole control system.
The ARIES drives operate in interpolated position mode, receiving coordinated position set-point commands over the Ethernet PowerLink network from a master motion controller. When used with Parker’s new ACR9030/9040 family of motion controllers, the ARIES drives offer the added benefits of auto-tuning, drive setup and full real-time diagnostics, all via the Ethernet PowerLink network using the ACR-View front end software. Available with continuous power ratings of 400W, 750W and 1.3kW, these drives operate direct online from a 120-240VAC single-phase supply and also feature a logic keep-alive facility. Both rotary and linear brushless servo motor technologies are supported, as are both standard quadrature- and EnDat-encoder feedback systems.
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 applications, 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 multi-vendor support for the Ethernet PowerLink standard ensures that a wide range of automation products are available for integration into Ethernet PowerLink-based automation systems.