Parker Hannifin has enhanced its ACR9000 family of motion controllers with the addition of two new models featuring Ethernet PowerLink communication. The new controllers are designed to increase system productivity while decreasing overall costs and installation time, through the use of inexpensive and readily available Ethernet cabling for the interface between servo drive and motion controller.
The compact ACR9040 is capable of controlling 16 axes of servo drive via the Ethernet PowerLink network, with interpolation of up to eight axes in any combination. The ACR9030 offers the addition of up to eight axes of conventional command interfacing, for the control of traditional servo and stepper drive axes. Both models generate position set-points which are sent to the servo drives via the Ethernet PowerLink network, providing tightly synchronised and co-ordinated multi-axis control that maximises system productivity.
The ACR9000 platform features advanced motion control functionality including high-speed registration, segmented cams, electronic gearing and a wide range of interpolation modes including linear, circular, sinusoidal, helical, elliptical, spline/NURBS and 3D arcs. Capable of multi-tasking up to 24 simultaneous programs, these new controllers can act both as an Ethernet PowerLink Master and as an Ethernet gateway for maximum flexibility. Onboard CANopen ports enhance the capability of these controllers further, permitting integration with HMI panels and remote I/O expansion modules, while ACR-View front-end software provides easy-to-use tuning, configuration and diagnostic tools for fast and simple set-up.
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.