Albon Engineering is one of Europe's largest manufacturers of engine
components. The company recently commissioned a new 3,000 units per day
connecting rod production line, which uses the InterBus fieldbus to
control transfers between manufacturing cells. All sensors, actuator and
motors used by the transport system, along with several Kuka robots, are
linked via the fieldbus to a single central PLC, which provides overall
control of the connecting rod manufacturing process.
Had we used conventional field wiring, rather than InterBus, we would
undoubtedly have needed several PLCs to control this system, claims
Albon's senior electrical and control engineer, Paul Sear. For this
reason alone, adopting InterBus was a very worthwhile step. However, the
installation of Phoenix Contact's new IP400 InterBus motor starters has
provided us with even more valuable benefits.
These IP67 protected starters are mounted directly below the conveyors,
avoiding any necessity for separate control panels. This not only saved
money and valuable production space, but also greatly simplified the
motor field wiring. And because they include an InterBus interface, the
starters also take advantage of the bus diagnostics facilities, which
enable faults to be quickly and accurately traced.