DE
CE
MB
ER
20
16
FIELD LOGIC
RETURN OF BARBIE
VIBRATION DAMAGE
togetherness
Integration and collaboration are two important job requirements for the robot workforce
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CONTENTS Volume 20, No. 12
FEATURES
MACHINE INPUT
Does the end effector justify the means?Standards organizations are keeping pace with the speed of robotic integration and the new attachments they bring Mike Bacidore, editor in chief
19COVER STORY
TogethernessIntegration and collaboration are two important job requirements for the robot workforce Dave Perkon, technical editor
24MACHINE CONTROL
Control at the edgeField logic controller solves a clean-in-place application at an Idaho dairy and provides a glimpse of the future IIoT edge devices Jason Clements, Landmark Industrial Service
36
PRODUCT ROUNDUP
Get with the programSoftware changes everything from design and configuration to control44
CONTROL DESIGN, (ISSN: 1094-3366) is published 12 times a year by Putman Media, 1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173. (Phone 630/467-1300; Fax 630/467-1124.) Periodical postage paid at Schaumburg, IL, and at addi-tional mailing offices. Address all cor-respondence to Editorial and Executive Offices, same address. Printed in the United States. ©Putman Media 2016. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or part without consent of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Control Design, Post Office Box 3430, Northbrook, Illi-nois 60065-3430. SUBSCRIPTIONS: To apply for a free subscription, fill in the form at www.ControlDesign.com/subscribemag. To non-qualified sub-scribers in the Unites States and its possessions, subscriptions are $96.00 per year. Single copies are $15. Inter-national subscriptions are accepted at $200 (Airmail only.) Putman Media also publishes CHEMICAL PROCESS-ING, CONTROL, FOOD PROCESSING, PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTUR-ING, PLANT SERVICES, SMART INDUSTRY and THE JOURNAL. CON-TROL DESIGN assumes no respon-sibility for validity of claims in items reported. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agree-ment No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor information: World Distribu-tion Services, Inc., Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6J5. Printed in the United States.
December 2016 Control Design 5
MOTION
The birth of the medium-voltage driveA look at history offers a view of how product development can take place now and in the future
Dave Perkon, technical editor
39
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controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 7
9 Editor’s Page PLC ups and downs aheadMike Bacidore, editor in chief
11 Live Wire Smart devices lead to smart machinesDave Perkon, technical editor
13 Embedded Intelligence Leave the Barbie; take the dataJeremy Pollard, CET
15 Component ConsiderationsA place for text-based OIThomas Stevic, contributing editor
16 Technology TrendsDistributed control offl oads PLCs, PACsDan Hebert, PE, contributing editor
48 Real Answers Monitor vibration and corrosion
50 Automation Basics Installation tips for VFDsDave Perkon, technical editor
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Maple Systems ............................41
Novotechnik ................................26
Pepperl + Fuchs ..........................17
Phoenix Contact .......... 3, 27, 29, 31
Ross Controls ..............................22
Schneider Electric .......................14
Siemens Energy & Automation ......10
SMC Pneumatics ...........................8
Telemecanique Sensors ................23
Universal Robots .........................18
Wieland Electric ............................7
Yaskawa America ...........................6
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Mike Bacidore • editor in chief • [email protected] EDITOR’S PAGE
DON’T CALL IT a comeback. Not yet,
at least. Programmable logic control-
lers (PLCs) are plodding through a
global economic swamp, but there’s
dry land on the horizon.
In 2015, the PLC market sank by
11.5%, and revenue slid to $8.3 billion,
according to the IHS Markit’s PLCs
Annual Intelligence Service. The path
ahead remains muddy because of
the unfavorable economic climate in
emerging economies, China’s eco-
nomic woes and overcapacity in heavy
industries, the report predicts.
“The estimates for 2015 and forecast
for 2016 are dependent on primary in-
formation collected from interviews,”
explains Rita Liu, analyst, manufac-
turing technology, IHS Markit (www.
ihsmarkit.com), a U.K.-based intel-
ligence organization. But the interna-
tional economic climate, especially
exchange-rate fluctuations, affects the
report statistics. “The EMEA (Europe,
Middle East and Africa) and Japanese
markets were estimated to have
contracted dramatically. The slower
growth of the Chinese economy and
overcapacity in most heavy industries
also impact the whole Asia-Pacific
market for PLCs.”
Despite the murky waters, there’s
drier ground and higher ground
ahead. Global revenue from PLCs and
associated software and services
should increase at a compound an-
nual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% from
2017 to 2020, rising up to $9.3 billion.
The largest regional market for PLCs
will remain EMEA, where one-third
of global revenue occurs, according to
the IHS Markit report. The Asia-Pacific
market will grow the fastest over the
next five years, especially from 2018
to 2020, thanks to the fast-growing
Indian and southeast Asian markets.
The American region is expected to be
the second-fastest growing market.
The real performance of the PLC
market however depends on growth
in the discrete- and process-manufac-
turing sectors where PLCs are used.
Machine tools, packaging machinery
and automotive sectors traditionally
have been the three largest markets
for PLCs. But these markets, especially
the machine-tool sector, are forecast
to grow more slowly than the market
average from 2015 to 2020. China and
the United States, the leading national
markets for machine tools, suffered
major machine-tool declines in 2015.
In discrete manufacturing, PLCs are
growing fastest in the robotic sector,
primarily in automotive manufactur-
ing and the electrical and electronics
industries. The global robot boom has
had a positive impact on PLC revenues
because they are core components.
“The faster growth of industrial PCs
(IPCs) has some impact on the PLC
market, but the impact is not big now
or in the following five years,” con-
tinues Liu. “Some of the PLC products
today have the same PC-based archi-
tecture. And some high-end modular
PLCs already have a good enough pro-
cessing ability and various functional-
ity. Additionally, PLCs perform better
than IPCs in industry areas on aspects
such as lifecycle, maintenance, reli-
ability and ruggedness and engineer-
ing workload, so lots of customers are
still happy with PLCs.”
The largest regional market for PLCs will remain EMEA, where one-third of global revenue occurs.
PLC ups and downs ahead
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 9
EDITORIAL TEAM
editor in chief
MIKE [email protected]
technical editor
DAVE [email protected]
digital managing editor
CHRISTOPHER [email protected]
contributing editor
contributing editor
editorial assistant
LORI [email protected]
columnist
JEREMY [email protected]
DESIGN/PRODUCTION
senior production manager
ANETTA GAUTHIER
senior art director
DEREK CHAMBERLAIN
SUBSCRIPTIONS
customer service
888/644-1803
CIRCULATION
audited June 2016
Air & Gas Compressors 561
Engineering & Systems
Integration Services 11,380
Engines & Turbines 1,047
Food Products Machinery 1,577
Industrial Fans, Blowers
& Air Purification Equipment 525
Industrial Heating, Refrigeration
& Air Conditioning Equipment 1,165
Industrial Process Furnaces & Ovens 463
Machine Tools 2,144
Materials Handling, Conveyors
& Conveying Equipment 1,514
Metalworking Machinery 2,595
Mining Machinery & Equipment 527
Oil & Gas Field Machinery & Equipment 1,206
Packaging Machinery 901
Paper Industries Machinery 311
Printing Trades Machinery & Equipment 428
Pumps & Pumping Equipment 893
Rolling Mill Machinery & Equipment 157
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Machinery 821
Textile Machinery 169
Woodworking Machinery 276
Other Industries & Special Industrial
Machinery & Equipment NEC 11,360
TOTAL 40,020
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
630/467-1300
Fax: 630/467-1124
In Memory of Julie Cappelletti-Lange, Vice President 1984-2012
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THE JOURNEY TO smart devices, equipment and
machines is underway, but how do you implement
it? To start, Dan Throne, during Automation Fair in
Atlanta, Georgia, pointed out a few of the roadblocks
that need to be navigated to create smart machines.
As the North American regional OEM manager at
Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com),
Throne understands how dif� cult it is for OEMs to
deliver value beyond the machine itself. “OEMs need
to address the needs of a large range of customers in
a global marketplace where competition is � erce and
innovation is raising the bar,” he said. “At the same
time, changes in the workforce are causing possible
talent shortages, making staf� ng operations dif� cult
for smart manufacturing. Then you have security risks
and machine safety that must be navigated.”
If you ask me, smart devices, machines and equip-
ment, in a way, have been around for years. A stand-
alone temperature controller, for example, is a smart
device. However, tying the physical plant to the virtual
world is where the real smarts are happening today,
but many manufacturers aren’t smart enough to make
it happen yet.
Throne talked about a study of 1,000 executives
and what they thought about the Internet of Things
(IoT). “Most of the executives, 84%, believe the IoT is
creating new income streams for their companies,
and 87% see it generating long-term job growth.
However, only 7% of the executives have created a
comprehensive strategy to get there.”
It looks like the decision makers are all on board
with the bene� ts of the IoT, but they are struggling to
tie it all together. Perhaps some smart examples along
with vendor and OEM support will help.
An example from the smart industry side—the big
view—is Wal-Mart predicting demand for produce.
The demand prediction feeds its entire supply chain
from the � elds to transportation and manufacturing.
Viewed from the OEM side—the smart machine—it’s
about production � exibility, such as adjusting capacity
or changing product type based on demand.
It makes smart people by enabling them to view the
real-time data, contextualized with analytics, so the
information can be used to optimize performance.
A good smart device example, at the smallest
scale, is an IO-Link sensor such as a photo eye. A
smart photo eye doesn’t just give on/off status; it can
provide diagnostic data, as well as the intensity of the
returned light. With the intensity data contextualized,
in a dusty environment and measured over time, it
can be predicted when to clean the photo eye before a
downtime event occurs. That’s a smart device, and it
has a memory of the current and historical data stored
somewhere and an outside intelligence, to analyze it
via an app, for example, is needed.
Above the smart device is the smart equipment, and
it is more self-aware. I saw one of the � rst Rockwell
Automation products that is truly self-aware at Auto-
mation Fair in November. It is the Kinetix 5700 servo
drive, and what makes it self-aware is its tuning ca-
pabilities. Its smarts start at commissioning, where it
automatically provides the optimal tune for the servo
application. The tuning feature automatically compen-
sates for changing loads during production, as well.
Optimization is also happening at the smart-ma-
chine or smart-system level. The Integrated Architec-
ture Platform exhibit at Automation Fair had an exam-
ple of a smart system—the MagneMotion independent
cart intelligent conveying system. It is a � re-and-forget
system. To move a cart, the control system just needs
to provide a destination location. The smart system
takes care of the rest using built-in programs to move,
track and accumulate carts and provide traf� c-control
functions at cart-merging points to prevent collisions
with little programming necessary.
How you get smart depends on what you are trying to
do. Start with the failures that would stop the machine,
and understand the architecture of the existing control
system. To determine the machine’s status from a
smartphone and access the related history, it may be
as easy as selecting a check box in your PanelView
con� guration. The control system may already have the
capability. If not, maybe the machine needs an upgrade
to expand the analytics. That technology is available.
FactoryTalk View SE and FactoryTalk Analytics for
Machines offer many of the functions to get you there.
Check it out and get smart.
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 11
Tying the physical plant to the virtual world is where the real smarts are happening today, but many manufacturers aren’t smart enough to make it happen yet.
Smart devices lead to smart machines
Dave Perkon • technical editor • [email protected] LIVE WIRE
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YOU JUST CAN’T make this stuff up. Remember Bar-
bie—that doll that is Wi-Fi-connected and can create
an open port on your home network just so she can
talk to your kid? That Barbie.
Well, the Internet of Things (IoT) has gone haywire,
and I think it deserves some face time. You may not
have heard about this Canadian court case, but it in-
volves a battery-operated device that can be controlled
and monitored from one’s smartphone.
The manufacturer of this device is being sued for
collecting, without the knowledge of the user, myriad
data points using the app called We-Connect. It states
that, given the nature of its products, security is of the
utmost importance.
The real issue here is not the fact that someone used
this device three times today for x amount of time, but
the fact that personal data was being collected and
disseminated without the person’s knowledge.
That has never happened before either, I suspect.
Gartner, the U.S. research firm, suggests that there
are more than 6 billion devices that are currently
sharing information over the Internet right now. IoT
will increase that number exponentially in short order.
So why would a personal-device manufacturer want
to know about someone’s activity? While it was not
mentioned specifically, the catch phrase in most cases
is that the manufacturer wants to know how the prod-
uct is being used.
Maybe the manufacturer simply thinks it isn’t
much different than a phone call, asking how often,
how long and who was operating the device. I don’t
think so.
So, I have been looking at smart home technology,
and of course Nest is owned now by Google, which
is the elephant in the room regarding data collection
from everything. What could a thermostat reveal
about me and my home that would be of interest?
In itself, probably nothing, but by correlating data
from outside sources, it may be very valuable to
marketing types. If my home temperature is 70 °F, and
it’s -20 °F outside, it makes sense to think that I like it
cooler than warmer. Internet banner ads now pop up
with couch blankets or snuggies when I am browsing.
But I use the Wink app, and it was very bothersome
to me that Wink publishes its API. What could go
wrong with that?
It is the control aspect, not reporting, that is of con-
cern. Embedded code in a Wink device, or any home
automation system, has the capability to cause havoc,
if it wants to.
Edge computing is part of it. Edge computing is de-
fined as a logical extreme of a network, which means
the device itself. Knowledge generation can and does
occur at the device and does not require any addi-
tional processing.
Having said that, I am seeing that myriad devices
are being developed and built using the representa-
tional state transfer (REST) architecture, which defines
constructs for device development. One of these con-
structs is code on demand.
A server can promote code to the device for execution,
which can include scripts of various natures. Hopefully
these scripts would not perform any nefarious duties.
But it can be controlled by a smartphone. While I’m
sure that no one will hack a personal device as such,
having some control on a smartphone has already
been shown to provide insights into the owner. If a de-
veloper tweaked virtual network computing (VNC), for
instance, and took control of the user’s phone, it could
have devastating effects.
We in the industrial world really are no different in
that we use commercially available things to create
our own devices. We need to be very careful in mak-
ing sure that our devices are not violating our process
privacy and our plant security.
It’s about trust. Can we trust the fact that most if
not all companies seek competitive advantage?
If the answer is no, then maybe we need an IoT
protocol sniffer to be sure we aren’t letting our usage
habits leave the building.
Trust with verification—we will need it. Be careful
out there.
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 13
Myriad devices are being developed and built using the representational state transfer (REST) architecture, which defines constructs for device development.
Leave the Barbie; take the data
JEREMY POLLARD, CET, has been writing about technology
and software issues for many years. Pollard has been
involved in control system programming and training for
more than 25 years.
Jeremy Pollard, CET • [email protected] EMBEDDED INTELLIGENCE
CD1612_13_EmbedIntel.indd 13 11/23/16 11:23 AM
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AN OPERATOR INTERFACE (OI) may be a small
device mounted at a specific place on a complex ma-
chine. For example, it may serve as a local display for
a flowmeter or temperature controller. It may be the
only interface on a specific purpose machine such as
an air compressor or hydraulic power unit. An OI may
be used as an andon board or as a display to show cur-
rent production status. A programmable traffic sign,
variable-message sign (VMS) or matrix sign may also
be considered as a type of OI.
The sophistication of any interface device is lim-
ited only by the creativity of the designer. If using an
OI with a few lines of text and a few input buttons, a
number of operator selections should be limited. While
it may be possible to display dozens or even hundreds
of individual messages on an alpha-numeric OI, an op-
erator scrolling through multiple selections to find the
correct one for the task at hand may spend more time
pressing an up/down button than if presented numer-
ous options on a larger graphical interface. A designer
must always include the amount of time the operator
spends interacting with a piece of machinery as part of
the cost of ownership. When used as the primary in-
terface to a control system, an OI is usually associated
with a rather simple machine, such as a pumping sta-
tion, air compressor, motor switching station or other
systems with a minimal number of operator adjustable
functions and informational prompts.
On larger machines and systems, a small text-
based OI can be used as a local display or input-out-
put device at different locations around the machine,
even if larger, full-featured HMIs are also incorpo-
rated into the design.
If a certain section of the machine has several intel-
ligent sensing devices, each one may have different
methods to scroll through the available information.
Using a local OI, an operator, manufacturing engineer
or maintenance person can have access to all of the
information the different sensors supply to the control
device using a consistent method of access.
When selecting an OI, normal considerations
include the number of characters that are display-
able at any one time. A short message that is shown
without scrolling across the display takes less time to
read and understand. The physical size and color of
the characters should be selected to provide fast and
easy viewing from the normal distance the operator
views them. An excellent resource for determining the
optimal size of a display character is at www.contr-
oldesign.com/displaycharacter. The environmental
packaging of the electronics should follow the NEMA
or IEC ratings that are required for the location. Older
technology used for LCDs limited the operational tem-
perature of the displays due to the type of liquid crys-
tal fluid used and the voltage thresholds applied to
the display element. LED displays did not exhibit this
restriction and were used when the device operated
in extreme temperatures. Modern technology has re-
moved this disadvantage by using different LCD fluids.
Pure LED devices, not to be confused with LED-backlit
LCD displays, are still somewhat brighter, have a wider
viewing angle and are easier to see in bright ambient
light or sunlight. Because of advances in the technolo-
gies, this difference is now minimal. Newer technol-
ogy, such as organic light emitting diode (OLED), may
replace both LED and LCD devices.
Communication options can range from a simple
parallel interface to EtherNet/IP or even wireless
Bluetooth. Parallel interfaces are the most restrictive
as far as message display type. Typically, static mes-
sages stored on the OI are presented based upon the
bit pattern applied to the interface. If displaying static
status or fault messages is all that is required, a parallel
interface may be all that is needed. Using a lower-end
serial connection, such as RS-232/422/485, will allow
dynamically changing the messages to be displayed.
The complexity of creating or sending messages to
the display depends on how easily the control device
handles string data. Some PLCs do not handle this task
very well, while a PAC or PC may be a better device to
create serial message strings.
Manufacturers who offer lower-end, relatively
inexpensive operator interfaces will likely also offer
higher-end, more-expensive models that the manufac-
turer would rather sell.
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 15
A PAC or PC may be a better device to create serial message strings.
A place for text-based OI
Thomas Stevic • [email protected] COMPONENT CONSIDERATIONS
THOMAS STEVIC is a controls engineer at Star Manufacturing
(www.starmanufacture.com), an engineering and production
company in Cincinnati. Contact him at [email protected].
CD1612_15_ComponentConsider.indd 15 11/23/16 11:24 AM
16 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
Dan Hebert, PE • contributing editor • [email protected] TRENDS
WHEN AUTOMATION profession-
als hear the phrase “distributed
control system” or its acronym,
DCS, they usually think about the
huge, monolithic and expensive
control systems often used in big
process plants. Ironically, most dis-
tributed control systems in process
plants don’t distribute control at
all, but instead consolidate it into a
few centralized processors.
But, when it comes to machine
automation, distributed control
means something else entirely.
In this case, distributed control
means taking a real-time control or
data-processing task away from the
main controller and distributing it
to one or more cabinet- or � eld-
mounted controllers. The main rea-
sons for using distributed control
are to perform specialized tasks,
add redundancy, improve perfor-
mance and simplify programming.
Distributed controllers can be
used to perform tasks not easily
handled by the main controller,
particularly if the main con-
troller is a PLC, as opposed to a
more powerful PAC. Safety-rated
distributed controllers are perhaps
the most widespread use of dis-
tributed controllers.
Instead of upgrading the main
controller to a very expensive
safety-rated PLC or PAC to handle
hundreds of standard and a few
safety I/O points, it’s often much
more cost-effective to simply add
a safety-rated controller to handle
the safety I/O. The distributed
safety-rated controller can be a
simple smart relay if there are just
a few points of safety I/O or a small
safety-rated PLC to handle more
I/O. In either case, savings can be
signi� cant as compared to using a
safety-rated main controller with
its hundreds of I/O points.
Another specialized task often
handled by distributed control-
lers is motion control. Although
many PLCs and PACs can be pro-
grammed to control motion, it can
be more cost-effective to use one
or more motion controllers to per-
form this custom control activity,
instead of trying to make the main
controller do something a bit out-
side its main realm of capability.
Hydraulic motion control is a
good example of a task that could
be handled by a main controller
but may be better addressed with a
specialized distributed controller.
“Our motion controllers are capable
of optimizing machine func-
tionality via precise closed-loop
control of hydraulic and electric
servo position, velocity, pressure/
force or torque, enabling the main
controller to concentrate on other
functions,” says Bill Savela, direc-
tor of marketing at Delta Computer
Systems (www.deltamotion.com).
“If the main controller, such as
a PLC, were to perform the motion
control function in addition to
other functions, the system would
likely not be able to achieve as high
a degree of motion precision and/
or axis synchronization. This is
in part because a main controller
must divide its time among many
diverse tasks and may not be able
to close the control loop associated
with any one speci� c control func-
tion fast enough,” adds Savela.
“Our controllers can also per-
form custom processing of sensor
feedback. If multiple sensors are
Distributed control offl oads PLCs, PACs
(SO
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CO
MPU
TER
SYST
EMS)
CONSIDER DISTRIBUTED CONTROLMachines such as this metal press often require extensive control of hydraulic motion, a task that may be better performed by a distributed controller than by the main PLC or PAC.
The main reasons for using distributed control are to perform specialized tasks, add redundancy, improve performance and simplify programming.
CD1612_16_18_TechTrends.indd 16 11/23/16 11:26 AM
controldesign.com
highly sensitive to different ranges
of inputs, switching among them
can extend the range of feedback
sensitivity incorporated into the
control loop. Mathematical opera-
tions can also be performed on
sensor data before it is incorpo-
rated into the control loop. This
enables the motion controller
to perform precise control even
when the sensor responds to � eld
conditions in a nonlinear manner.
These capabilities expand on the
power of the distributed controller,
enabling greater precision and/or
reliability and of� oading the main
controller,” concludes Savela.
Another specialized task is data
acquisition and processing for
sensors and other input points
not needed for real-time control.
Although it’s possible to wire all of
these points back to the main con-
troller, it’s often not cost-effective,
particularly for retro� ts where new
sensors are being added. Although
this is not strictly distributed
control as real-time control is not
being performed, it is an important
part of the automation system, and
some control functions are usually
required to manage and massage
the sensor data.
“One major in� uence of the
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
is the rapid addition of sensors to
various machines,” says Mark Lo-
chhaas, product sales manager at
Advantech (www.advantech.com).
“Many end users are recognizing
the need to sense virtually every
operating parameter and bring
corresponding data to the cloud,
but this requires a component
between the sensor and the cloud.
There are various layers of data
collection, concentration, pre-stor-
age analysis and communication;
and distributed control in the form
of intelligent remote I/O can be
used to encompass these layers by
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CD1612_16_18_TechTrends.indd 17 11/23/16 11:27 AM
performing the data-acquisition corresponding tasks.”
In the future, sensors will be used more widely and
become more intelligent, probably moving from hard-
wired connections and industrial protocols to more
IT-friendly protocols such as message queuing telem-
etry transport (MQTT), a publish/subscribe, extremely
simple and lightweight messaging protocol designed
for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-
latency or unreliable networks. “Remote I/O and other
edge computing platforms will become smaller and
more powerful with enhanced communication capa-
bility yet consume less power. Software development
will allow collaboration among devices and platforms
for signi� cantly more sophisticated distributed con-
trol. Centralized control will always be necessary, but
it will become more supervisory,” believes Lochhaas.
“One of the bene� ts of using a distributed controller
in place of a standard I/O device is that the distributed
controller can back up the main controller if it goes
down and take over and safely shut down the pro-
cess,” says Noah Glenn, product manager for � eldbus
technology at Turck (www.turck.us). Another bene� t
is of� oading the main controller from tasks that can
consume a signi� cant amount of processing power.
And, because control is local, it can often be much
faster than with simple remote I/O, which must com-
municate back and forth with the main controller.
“Distributed controllers can be used to enable local-
ized, � exible distributed machine control in applica-
tions such as conveying and other material handling
systems,” adds Glenn. “Other possible control applica-
tions are those in which things have to happen in a
certain order such as those utilizing RFID, grippers,
die protection, recipes, motor speed, counting, light
curtains and other components and functions.”
Distributed controllers can be programmed in a
variety of ways. Some are programmed with PC-based
software using ladder logic and other IEC-61131 lan-
guages such as � ow charts or scripting.
Whether they are called distributed controllers,
smart remote I/O or specialized controllers, these com-
ponents can be used to design better automation sys-
tems. Trends such as the IIoT often require the addition
of sensors, and it’s often more cost-effective to handle
these added input points with distributed control. In-
creased emphasis on safety along with new regulations
often require the addition of safety-rated I/O, another
task often best handled by distributed control.
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
“It’s a fundamental paradigm shift in the way robots are viewed.”
Scan code to read case study and watch the video:www.universal-robots.com/case-stories/task-force-tips/
Find your distributor: www.universal-robots.com/distributors
CEO Stewart McMillan, Task Force Tips
Huge gains in productivity and quality34 days was all it took for fire hose manufacturer Task Force Tips to pay for its Universal Robots through productivity savings. Three Universal Robots tend CNC machines. A fourth is mounted to a table and wheeled between tasks. The application required no scripting and was created by a journeyman machinist with minimal training.
2 robots work in tandem on CNC milling. No scripting needed. 34-day payback from productivity savings.
CD1612_16_18_TechTrends.indd 18 11/23/16 11:27 AM
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 19
INTEGRATION OF ROBOTS has become much easier due to advancements in technology and programming.
We’ve only just begun to develop grippers and end effectors to address the unpredictable robotic situations that
will continue to evolve. As a result of this evolution, OEMs need to be aware of standards and regulations from
ANSI, RIA and ISO, especially for the rising robot integration and plethora of new end effectors, but what else do
you need to know? With robotics playing such a pivotal role in the future of discrete manufacturing, we asked a
seasoned panel of industry veterans for their insights and predictions on the role of robots.
Can you explain some of the technical advancements that have made robots easier to integrate in equipment, cells or production lines?
by Mike Bacidore, editor in chief
Does the end effector justify the means?Standards organizations are keeping pace with the speed of robotic
integration and the new attachments they bring
MACHINE INPUT
Allan Hottovy business development manager at Telemecanique Sensors (www.tesensors.com).
ALLAN HOTTOVY: The biggest current improvement
is not in the advanced technology being implemented,
but in that these devices are fast becoming commodity
items and easy to implement. Our focus is on manufac-
turing very flexible, easy to understand, interchange-
able, standardized sensor components that can be
easily re-tasked after a production run or project. The
simpler and more standardized you make the robotic
sensor components, the easier they are to reconfigure,
use and repair. Sticking to international standards and
regulations while building your automation system can
ensure that your system is easy to understand, main-
tain and service. It’s one of our core beliefs.
George Schustersenior industry consultant for safety at Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com).
GEORGE SCHUSTER: There are a variety of tech-
nological advancements contributing to increased
adoption of industrial robots. Robots and PACs are
increasingly integrated over open industrial Ether-
net networks. Those networks provide the ability for
automation controllers and robots to communicate
control, safety and process information at very high
speeds. Additional developments greatly improve the
ease with which these systems can be configured to
communicate by structuring data in more contextual-
ized ways that are meaningful for the application.
The use of this shared, contextualized data is im-
proving the use and maintenance of robotics within
complex work cells. The ability to share HMIs and show
data from a variety of sources can help to improve
machine troubleshooting and expedite machine debug-
ging and repair. This can lead to a systematic reduction
in mean time to repair and improved system yield.
Advancements in safety sensor technologies have
improved the ability to detect human approach and,
thus, have improved the way that robots and machin-
ery can respond. These safety sensors include laser
scanners and other “time of flight” technologies that
can better coordinate the motion of people with that
of the equipment under control. This improves the
integration of people and their tasks with robots and
other automation equipment in a work cell.
Additionally, the integration of advanced safety func-
tions into motor controllers and robotic systems pro-
vides new tools for system designers. Those tools allow
them to more precisely manage the behavior of ma-
chinery in the presence of operators and maintenance
personnel. These advanced safety functions include
safe stop, safe speed, safe direction, safe position and
other capabilities. When combining advanced safety
sensors, integrated communication and shared data,
CD1612_19_23_MachineInput.indd 19 11/23/16 11:31 AM
system designers are able to dramatically improve the
way that people and robot equipment interact, leading
to improved safety and system productivity.
Scott Mabiegeneral manager, Americas Division, at Universal Robots (www.universal-robots.com).
SCOTT MABIE: We constantly raise the bar for what
the term “collaborative” truly entails. The label not
only means humans can collaborate directly with the
robots potentially with no safety guarding between
them; the term also addresses ease of use. A robot is
not truly collaborative if it’s not easy to work with. Our
research-and-development team constantly works on
improving the robotics user interface. The out-of-box
experience should be less than an hour. That’s the time
it takes an untrained operator to unpack the robot,
mount it and program the first simple tasks. Program-
ming should be intuitive and be done by simply grab-
bing the robot arm to show it the desired movement or
by using the arrow keys on the touchscreen.
Alex Bonairerobot product manager at Mitsubishi Electric Automation (www.meau.com).
ALEX BONAIRE: The biggest advancements in recent
years that have aided robotic implementation are
with off-line robot simulation software. Complete
robotic work cells can now be created off-line, and
their operation can be simulated so that customers
and engineers can see exactly how the system will
operate. This greatly reduces the risk associated with
robotic automation because no physical hardware is
required, and, if there is a flaw in the design, it can be
found and fixed much more easily.
David Arenssenior automation instructor, certified TUV functional safety engineer, at Bosch Rexroth Drives and Controls Division (www.boschrexroth-us.com).
DAVID ARENS: Robots need two things to work prop-
erly—consistent incoming product quality and dimen-
sions, as well as consistent and periodic maintenance
to their operating parts. Unless these two parts exist,
the integration will be flawed and the production will
have a lot of losses. The other thing that has helped
in the integration of robots is the fact that there are
some basic common types that people now have ex-
perience with—six-axis with end effector and wrist,
Scara, Delta and Cartesian.
Many companies already offer a kinematic, in other
words a mathematical model that will provide the
motion needed. Integrated vision library systems that
show how it was done and repeatable performance
and speed are important.
Corey Ryanmanager—medical robotics, North America, at Kuka Robotics (www.kuka-robotics.com).
COREY RYAN: Human robot collaboration (HRC) has
been ongoing for many years. Over the past decade,
robots in the medical and entertainment industries
have interacted directly with people. Social accep-
tance of the idea that people and robots can work
safely together and heavy cost-reduction targets are
what have fueled the collaborative robotics market on
the industrial side. From a technical standpoint, the
integration of area sensors and vision systems has
made it possible to design HRC cells using standard
industrial robots. Because of the market demand,
companies have developed robots specifically for
human-robot collaboration with features such as
rounded edges, no pinch points, variable stiffness and
force control. Those robots designed for HRC have in-
tegrated force sensors and safety software that allow
for safe system design without a lot of the additional
effort required when using standard industrial robots.
Craig Souserpresident of JLS Automation (www.jlsautomation.com), a robotic packaging company in York, Pennsylvania.
CRAIG SOUSER: Pre-engineered application pack-
ages from robot suppliers also help.
Garrett Placeproduct manager, imaging technologies, at ifm efector (www.ifm.com).
GARRETT PLACE: One of the biggest challenges for
integrating a robot is the programming. Advance-
ments in this area include programming via a PLC
and touch/force sensitive programming. By adopt-
20 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
MACHINE INPUT
CD1612_19_23_MachineInput.indd 20 11/23/16 11:31 AM
ing this type of programming structure, the speed of
implementation and the number of people capable of
performing the programming increases.
Regarding touch/force sensitive programming,
many cobots utilize a show-me type of programming
for simple applications. The user simply takes control
of the arm at a speci� ed location. They can then pull
or push the arm to the different way points of the
intended action. The robot then can repeat this task.
No traditional programming is required.
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The biggest growth in the robotics area seems to be with end effectors. How has the explosion in end-effector options and availability affected machine builder’s willingness to integrate robots?
DAVID ARENS: End effectors are still exploding. If
you want to see, just look up coffee ground grippers.
We don’t know the amount of biomimicry that we
might use in our physical environment. I just saw a
micro motor system on a microscope stage being used
to push micro crystal seeds into a waiting retriever
paddle. We have only just begun our process of devel-
oping grippers, and there are so many unpredictable
situations that will continue to evolve.
SCOTT MABIE: It has de� nitely had a very positive ef-
fect. As a manufacturer of the robot arm, it’s of course
imperative that our users quickly identify and integrate
the best end effectors for their speci� c applications.
COREY RYAN: The end effector is part of the robotic
system and must be considered carefully in the ap-
plication risk assessment. Historically, end effectors
have been attached to robots behind fences where
sharp edges, pointed corners and pinch points were
not a problem because people couldn’t interact while
the robot was moving. Once the robot is used in
a collaborative fashion, most standard end effec-
tors become unsafe, so an entirely new market has
CD1612_19_23_MachineInput.indd 21 11/23/16 11:31 AM
opened up. Collaborative robots have also opened up
many new applications, and each of these requires
new end effectors with application-speci� c features
that prevent user injury.
What are the most important standards and regulations that machine builders should be aware of when designing equipment that includes robotic elements?
Carole Franklin director of standards development at Robotic Industries Association (www.robotics.org).
CAROLE FRANKLIN: ANSI/RIA R15.06:2012 is the
current industrial robot safety standard in the United
States. This U.S. national standard is based on the in-
ternational standard of ISO 10218:2011, parts 1 and 2;
if your industrial robot system is in compliance with
the R15.06, it’s also in compliance with ISO 10218. It’s
important to be aware of the requirements in these
related standards, because the new technical speci� -
cation, ISO/TS 15066 provides supplemental and sup-
porting information to ISO 10218 and is intended to be
used together with that standard. Effective use of TS
15066 assumes that the robot system under consid-
eration is in compliance with Part 1 and Part 2 of ISO
10218:2011, or with ANSI/RIA R15.06:2012.
Roberta Nelson Sheaglobal technical compliance offi cer atUniversal Robots.
ROBERTA NELSON SHEA: ANSI RIA R15.06 is a na-
tional adoption of both ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2.
These standards are critical to the safety of robot sys-
tems. TS 15066 is needed for collaborative applications.
These standards reference other standards that are also
needed, such as ISO 13849, ISO 13855 and ISO 13857.
Chris Sorannosafety application specialist at Sick(www.sick.com).
CHRIS SORANNO: The � rst standard OEMs and in-
tegrators should know regarding robotic applications
deployed in the United States is ANSI/RIA R15.06:2012,
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addressing safety requirements for industrial robots
and robot systems. Along with this standard, three
technical reports coincide to help form a complete
picture of safety concepts: Risk Assessment (RIA TR
R15.306), Safeguarding (RIA TR R15.406) and Change
Management (RIA TR R15.506). However, most robots
do not work alone; they are often incorporated into
automated or semi-automated systems working in
synchronized operation with other industrial equip-
ment. In these cases, a number of other important
standards may also need to be considered.
• ANSI B11.20 addresses integrated manufacturing
systems—two or more industrial machines, one of
which is the robot, that are linked by a material han-
dling system and coordinated by an interconnected
control system.
• ANSI/ASME B20.1 deals with conveyors and related
equipment.
• ANSI/PMMI B155.1 covers packaging machinery and
packaging-related converting machinery.
• ANSI/SPI B151.27 encompasses robots integrated
with injection molding machines.
• AWS D16.1M/D16.1 is for robotic arc welding ap-
plications.
• SEMI S28 focuses on robots used with semiconduc-
tor manufacturing equipment.
SCOTT MABIE: ISO just published the long-awaited
ISO/TS 15066 on cobot safety. This is a big step for
collaborative robots. The world has accepted that
this is a class of robots that’s viable, that we can
have in the future.
DAVID ARENS: I’d recommend being familiar with
ANSI B11, UL 508C, RIA R15.06, NFPA79, PMMI machin-
ery standards and IEC 13849 and 62061.
COREY RYAN: ISO 10218: 1-2 are the standards that
cover human-robot collaboration and outline the vari-
ous accepted strategies required for collaboration, such
as speed and separation monitoring, power and force
limiting and safety-rated stop. Regarding risk assess-
ments and injury thresholds, additional details will be
covered by the new technical specification TS 15066.
MACHINE INPUT
...because just ONE workplace accident
is too many...For over ninety years, Telemecanique Sensors has developed quality sensor
products which help engineers ensure their machines are safe to operate and meet
all the industry’s applicable safety standards.
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togetherness
Integration and collaboration are two important job requirements for the robot workforce
COVER STORY
24 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
by Dave Perkon, technical editor
CD1612_24_34_CoverStory.indd 24 11/23/16 11:39 AM
Start with the unwantedRobots can help to make the
manufacturing process more ef-
ficient. If an operator is working on
a dirty, difficult, dull or dangerous
job, then a robot should be consid-
ered (Figure 1). “In order for manu-
facturing to thrive in the United
States, it needs to be competitive
in the global marketplace,” says
Bob Doyle, director of communica-
tions at Robotic Industries Assn.
(RIA, www.robotics.org). “The use
of robotics and automation helps
companies maintain that com-
petitive advantage by producing
higher-quality products, makes
them more productive and faster,
creates a safer workplace and
reduces costs all while creating
better, higher-paying jobs.”
Most customers look at just
the technical data sheets when
considering robots, notes Chris
Blanchette, account manager for
assembly robots at Fanuc America
(fanucamerica.com). “What is the
reach, speed, precision and price?”
asks Blanchette. “But probably
almost as important as those
attributes are the robot OEM’s sup-
port infrastructure and product
integrated features. Some primary
reasons to choose a robot for a
manufacturing solution are to add
flexibility in the process, improve
throughput, reduce ergonomic and
safety challenges and improve
product quality. A robot OEM who
has skilled application engineer-
ing resources, product specialists
and customer support specialists
available, not only in your region
but the customer’s region, reduces
your risk in defining a workable
solution and increases the prob-
ability that you will understand
the robot, the options and how
to apply them more effectively in
your automated solutions.”
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 25
MORE ROBOTS, PLEASEFigure 1: Robots are an excellent choice for dirty, difficult, dull or dangerous jobs.
A robot’s flexibility
makes it suitable
for use in many
applications. Whether
you’re starting or expand-
ing the use of robotics,
there’s a lot to know when
it comes to selection, safety
and collaboration.
(SO
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Y M
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AC
HIN
E)
CD1612_24_34_CoverStory.indd 25 11/23/16 11:39 AM
The robot reach, speed, preci-
sion and price are important, but
full utilization of the robot is gen-
erally up to the integrator. “A qual-
ity simulation can help with this
and would be the recommended
starting point when beginning a
project,” says Aaron Brown, senior
controls engineer at AeroSpec
(www.aeropecinc.com) in Chan-
dler, Arizona. “Keep in mind that
a simulation is great for robotic
motion analysis and an amazing
help with trying to maximize cycle
time. However, in order to be truly
representative, the simulation
needs to be designed around the
mechanical design. Most simula-
tions will be directed to cycle
time or just a sales tool to give the
customer a visual representation
of what the cell may look like. It’s
difficult to fully understand how
the mechanical design, product
variations and robot implementa-
tion will affect the cell, thus mak-
ing many simulations inaccurate.
Settling times of robot systems
and other tool motion delays can
add up quickly, and they often
take longer than planned.”
Undenied flexibilityWatching a robot used in an auto-
motive paint or body-shop welding
application dramatically highlights
the robot’s flexibility in motion
and handling. “Although custom
automation will always have its
place, there are several reasons
why robots are often the preferred
solution,” says Leon Krzmarzick,
controls engineering manager at
Delta Technology (www.deltat-
echinc.com) in Phoenix, Arizona.
“Robots provide a degree of versa-
tility that, in some cases, simply is
not practical with custom automa-
tion.” Complex manipulation of
parts, for example, often requires
an elaborate custom-engineered
solution, whereas a robot can be
programmed to perform the same
part handling with relative ease. If
an application changes, the custom
solution may require substantial
redesign, but a robot may only re-
quire programming modifications.
Robots offer greater flexibility
in adapting to changes in the
product or process over time.
“Efforts to modify robot program-
ming and end-of-arm tooling
typically provide the benefit of
reduced development time, lower
cost to implement and shorter
ROI realization when compared to
custom automation,” notes Todd
Best, director of business develop-
ment at Delta Technology. “Also,
if the process becomes obsolete
or changes considerably, a robot
should be considered a redeploy-
able asset that has a high degree
of potential reuse elsewhere in a
customer’s production process. In
contrast, hard-tooled custom au-
tomation often is written off when
the process becomes obsolete.”
Robots provide flexibility to
adapt to product changes, both
planned and unplanned. “A robot’s
application program can quickly
be adjusted to correct for product
changes,” notes Douglas Tangye,
controls engineering supervisor—
welding systems at Fori Automa-
tion (www.foriauto.com) in Shelby
Township, Michigan. “Dedicated
automation may require mechani-
cal design changes, which would
require more time, resulting in lost
production.”
controldesign.com
COVER STORY
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It’s the automation that makes
the robotic application flexible.
“Most industrial robotic ap-
plications do indeed require an
entire automation system that
is engineered and installed by a
qualified system integrator,” notes
RIA’s Doyle. This includes the ro-
bot, end effector and surrounding
automation—the robot system.
The Robotic Industries Assn. of-
fers a Certified Robot Integrator
program to help the user to iden-
tify qualified integrators to select,
design, program and integrate
robot systems.
Robot selectionThere are many things to consider
when selecting robots for a new,
multi-station assembly applica-
tion, for example, some of which
may include possible human
collaboration. “There are a large
number of factors to consider
when selecting robots for auto-
mation,” notes Matt Wicks, vice
president, product development,
manufacturing systems at Intel-
ligrated (www.intelligrated.com)
in Mason, Ohio. “Cost and func-
tionality are at the core of these
factors. Collaborative robotics
generally have a lower cost point
but lack the functionality in terms
of reach, payload and speed that
more traditional arms provide.”
The reach and payloads are ca-
pability requirements, notes Frank
A. Loria, vice president at Harry
Major Machine (www.harrymajor-
machine.com) in Clinton Town-
ship, Michigan. Meeting cycle-time
requirements and multitasking are
important elements for selection
of proper robot applications, as
well, he says. “The project applica-
tion type, such as part handling,
palletizing, machine tendering or
welding, as well as any assembly
task—whether it’s totally robot-
independent or collaborative with
operators—are key takeaway deci-
sions for determining best utiliza-
tion of robots,” says Loria.
When designing a robotic work
cell, the machine builder should
ask a few key questions. “What
is the required cycle time of the
machine to get sufficient ROI?”
asks Ryan Weaver, automation
engineer with Axis New England
(www.axisne.com), a Universal
Robots distributor. “Speed and
safety can often compete in an
application, but it’s important to
consider the benefits of removing
guarding and allowing for greater
operator involvement.”
As a machine becomes closer
to 100% automated, the overall
cost tends to rise exponentially,
continues Weaver. “Certain
tasks can be very challenging to
automate, which adds significant
cost,” he says. “Those types of
tasks include anything subjec-
tive, such as bin sorting, or com-
plex inspection tasks. By slowing
down the process so that you can
consider a collaborative robot,
you allow human operators to be
involved in the more challeng-
ing portions of the task, reducing
automation cost.”
Overall there are many differ-
ent items that need to be verified
before a robot can be ordered. “As
a machine builder you would need
to look at many different aspects
of the project to select the best
robot,” notes Shane Dittrich, PE,
principal/CEO at House of Design
(www.thehouseofdesign.com) in
Nampa, Idaho. “The environment,
such as a foundry or clean room,
must be considered. Also, the
overall area of the application and
where the robot needs to reach is
a big consideration (Figure 2). The
payload of the robot must also
be analyzed and verified that it
matches the application.”
28 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
COVER STORY
GOT THE SPACE?Figure 2: Robot applications vary widely so reach and available area are important decisions.
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Set the goal“The machine builder needs to
take into account the true end goal
of the project and what is needed
to best accomplish that goal,”
says Arnar Thors, president at
Fitz-Thors Engineering (www.fitz-
thors.com) in Bessemer, Alabama.
“Most projects can see a sharp
increase of project scope, espe-
cially on very tough applications,
if the process deliverables are not
clearly defined up front. Major
items to consider are takt time,
part presentation to the cell, part
consistency and required fixtur-
ing. With this information you can
begin to plan and simulate your
multi-station layout to verify that
the tasks can be accomplished
with a 20% robot utilization buffer
for future expansion.”
When considering the possibil-
ity of automating any new manu-
facturing processes, there are a
gamut of robotic or automation
choices that boil down to looking
closely at each application, says
Chris Elston, senior controls engi-
neer, Yamaha Robotics USA (www.
yamaharobotics.com). At Yamaha
Robotics, engineers become inti-
mate with each project engineer
by asking application questions:
• What is your desired cycle time?
• What is the robot work payload?
• How far do you need to move the
object?
• What is the desired repeatability
of your process?
“The final parameter to be con-
sidered has to do with precision,”
says Arturo Baroncelli, robotics
business unit manager at Comau
(www.comau.com). “Generally
speaking, industrial robots are
able to manage elements that need
to be processed and located in a
definite geometrical position, with
adequate and reasonable toleranc-
es. Then the surfaces and reference
points need to be sufficiently pre-
cise for correct handling, and the
functional tolerances of the piece
to be processed need to be consis-
tent with the technological opera-
tions to be performed. The word
‘precision’ is key in the approach,
but also the word ‘adequate.’” It’s
unnecessary to require extremely
tight tolerances when lesser ones
would be sufficient. “Costs of such
extreme precision would be be-
come unreasonable,” he explains.
Integrator must ensure safetyA robot is as only as safe as the
system design, says Fori’s Tangye.
“Robots by themselves are de-
signed with all required safety
functionality, but the integrator
must take the necessary safety
precautions when integrating the
robot into any system (Figure 3).”
Krzmarzick from Delta
Technology comments that, in
collaborative applications, a
full-risk assessment is required
to determine if the application is
suitable for a “cobot” (collabora-
tive robot). Payload/end-of-arm-
tooling (EOAT) mass, velocity
and elevation are some of the
important factors that may rule
out a collaborative robot.
Many of the robots available
have extensive safety functions
built in, but safety also depends on
the application—the robot system.
“When designing for safe human-
robot collaboration, there are two
things to consider: the robot itself
and the application,” notes Weaver
from Axis New England. “Univer-
sal Robots offers a collaborative
robot that is certified by third
parties to meet the current cobot
safety standards. The second thing
to consider is the application itself
30 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
COVER STORY
HARD-WORKING ROBOTSFigure 3: While the robots are completing auto-torque on the suspension modules, the humans are performing difficult-to-automate work.
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CD1612_24_34_CoverStory.indd 30 11/23/16 11:39 AM
Call 1-800-322-3225 or visit: www.phoenixcontact.com/confidence
Networking and remote connectivityBuilding intelligent network infrastructure. Smarter factories and convergences with enterprise IT are increasing the demand for remote access and collection of real-time data. Intelligent network infrastructure starts with the selection of switches, routers, wireless, and security components to harness opportunity and minimize risk.
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32 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
and the safety hazards that may
present. For example, the robot
may be picking up a part with
sharp edges and moving it quickly
at head-height. In that case, the
integrator should consider what is
safe if the tool or product were to
hit a person.”
It’s a common mistake to con-
sider that the use of a collaborative
robot can solve all issues, agrees
Comau’s Baroncelli. “In general,
one has to focus not only on the
robot, but on the whole applica-
tion,” he says (Figure 4). “A robotic
cell is composed, first of all, by the
robot itself. There are clear inter-
national rules to be fulfilled, which
the robot manufacturer is aware
of and fully responsible for. But
then there is the gripper, which
can be awkward and dangerous in
terms of its behavior when there
is potential contact with a person.
Here the responsibility is generally
connected with system integrator
if the robot manufacturer does not
supply the gripper. And then there
is the part that, when handled
by the robot, becomes part of the
extended robot. Last but not least,
a robotic cell is also composed of
other pieces of equipment such as
fixtures, conveyors, presses and
furnaces, which are not intrin-
sically safe. A risk assessment
should therefore be done for the
whole robotic cell where the nec-
essary safety of the cooperative
robot may not be enough to grant
a sufficient level of safety to the
entire cell. For example, it is one
thing to manipulate cookies with
soft grippers and another thing
to handle red hot iron pieces with
hard metal-end effectors. And,
once again, the role and respon-
sibility of the system integrator is
key in the assessment.”
Speed killsIn general, there are applications
that have a requirement for opera-
tor interaction and others that do
not. “Most of the very high-speed
assembly applications are best
built with physical safety guard-
ing,” says Rick Brookshire, senior
manager—product development
and marketing, Epson Robots
(www.epsonrobots.com). “This is
the most safe solution and will
protect from the unexpected.”
Most of Epson Robots’ custom-
ers continue to prefer safeguard-
ing even though discussions of
collaborative robots are certainly
a hot topic in the industry, says
Brookshire. “Usually, the problem
COVER STORY
CAREFUL WITH THAT MASERATIFigure 4: Not only must the robot successfully perform the work, but it must do it in a manner safe for the personnel and the end products.
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CD1612_24_34_CoverStory.indd 32 11/23/16 11:39 AM
with true collaborative robots is
that they need to run slowly and
then can’t meet throughput re-
quirements for high-speed, high-
throughput applications,” he says.
“However, a compromise solution
is to use zone safety devices such
as laser area scanner sensors to
map an area around a robot to de-
tect the presence of humans or ob-
jects moving into the robot space
and adjacent space. These devices
allow high-speed operation when
operators are not near the robots
and then detect approaching
operators and slow down or stop
when operators get close and their
safety is in question.”
Robot standardsWith regard to robot safety stan-
dards, OSHA compliance is a legal
requirement in the United States
and should be the � rst stop for
an integrator, says Bill Edwards,
manager, Technology Advance-
ment Team, at Yaskawa America’s
Motoman Robotics division. “From
there, they should move on to the
voluntary consensus standards,
� rst and foremost being the ANSI/
RIA 15.06 2012,” he explains. “This
speci� cation is essentially identi-
cal to ISO 10218, parts 1 and 2, and
takes a global approach to robotic
safety standards with manufac-
turer requirements found in Part
1 and the system integrator’s/end
user’s requirements found in Part
2. A good working knowledge of
ISO 13849, Safety of machinery—
Safety related parts of a control
system, and ISO 12100, Safety of
machinery—General principles
for design—Risk assessment
and risk reduction, is also very
helpful. Additionally, there were
three technical reports created by
the RIA to help to � ll the gaps in
information no longer addressed
in the revised 15.06. These are TR
R15.306, Task-based risk assess-
ment methodology, which relies
heavily on ANSI B11.0, TR R15.406,
Safeguarding, and TR R15.506,
Applicability of ANSI/RIA R15.06-
2012 for existing industrial robot
applications. If the system design
calls for a collaborative solution,
then ISO/TS 15066:2016, Robots
and robotic devices—Collaborative
robots, would also be useful.”
When implementing a robot
system, collaborative or otherwise,
the integrator and end users must
take safety into consideration. “Just
because the arm is collaborative
does not give the integrator/end
user a free pass; the system must
still be assessed for safety,” says
Intelligrated’s Wicks. “Is a knife-
wielding collaborative robot safe?
No, of course not, so steps must be
taken to protect individuals in this
environment. ANSI/RIA R15.06-
2012 and ISO/TS15066 are industry
standards that should be under-
stood when considering any robotic
deployment. Some popular uses of
collaborative robotics have been in
machine tending, worker assistive
functions and light manufacturing
or packing.”
Collaborative appsCollaborative robots actually refer
to a robot system, rather than a
particular type of robot, says RIA’s
Doyle. “With a collaborative robot
application, humans and robots
can occupy the same workspace
at the same time while the system
is in automatic mode,” he says.
“There are still safeguards and a
risk assessment required, in ac-
cordance with the robot system
safety standard ISO 10218-1 and
-2:2011. For now, the collaborative
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workspace will most likely be a
small de� ned space with familiar
fencing or other safeguards sur-
rounding the rest of the robot.”
The RIA updated robot safety
standards and de� ned some con-
ceptual applications of collabora-
tive robots including:
• hand-over window
• interface window
• collaborative workspace
• inspection
• hand-guided robot.
“Each of these applications of-
fers its own speci� cations of safe-
guards that must be met, which
are now categorized into four
collaborative modes of operation,”
says Yamaha Robotics’ Elston.
Those modes are:
1. Safety-rated monitored stop:
Operator may interact with
robot when it is stopped. Auto-
matic operation resumes when
the human leaves the collabora-
tive workspace.
2. Hand guiding: Operator is in
direct contact with the robot,
using hand controls.
3. Speed and separation moni-
toring: Robot/hazard speed is
reduced the closer an operator
is to the hazard area. Protective
stop is issued when operator is
in potential contact.
4. Power and force limiting: Inci-
dental contact between robot
and person will not result in
harm to person.
“Typically, robots are guarded
with machine guarding and
controlled via a safety supervi-
sory system or hardwired safety
contacts,” says Elston. “From a
safety standpoint, seeing a robot
behind a fence or a guard just puts
most people at ease. It’s easier to
understand that the robot is over
there and I am protected over here
in a safe environment, divided by
a safety barrier.”
To be clear, integrators must
perform a risk assessment and
consider the robot system as a
whole. “What dictates whether
or not a particular collaborative
mode can be used depends on a
comprehensive risk assessment
and applicable safety speci� ca-
tions,” says Yaskawa’s Edwards.
“The risk assessment should take
into account the entire system
including the robot, part, end ef-
fector and adjacent machinery.”
While the technology has
been available for some time to
perform all of these tasks, the
speci� cations previously did not
allow for its use or provide ad-
equate guidance on how it could
be used safely, explains Edwards
(Figure 5). With knowledge of the
relevant standards, a compre-
hensive risk assessment and use
of current robotic technology, it
is no longer a foregone conclu-
sion that robots and humans
can’t work together safely on the
manufacturing � oor.
34 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
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COVER STORY
SAFE ROBOT HAND GUIDINGFigure 5: Hand guiding is just one of the collaborative modes discussed in the RIA robot safety standards.
CD1612_24_34_CoverStory.indd 34 11/23/16 11:40 AM
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CD1612_FPA.indd 35 11/28/16 5:05 PM
MACHINE CONTROL
WHEN A DAIRY has an issue with an intermittent
controller, it can cause imbalanced chemical applica-
tion during the backflush period of its process. When
one of our customers found itself in this situation, we
decided to replace the failed controller with Turck’s
TBEN field logic controller (FLC) to get the dairy’s
backflush-cleaning process back on-line (Figure 1). The
controller includes ARGEE software and pushes reliable
control to the edge devices by adding logic to compat-
ible I/O blocks without a PLC.
The FLC concept is every bit as revolutionary as IO-
Link. Turck took what was once just a discrete I/O distri-
bution block and gave it a brain—the ability to solve logic
and make decisions. Giving a
dumb edge device the ability
to solve logic and communi-
cate with other devices is an
up-and-coming trend. This is
an important step on the path
to the Industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT).
Our goal was to open
our doors as an industrial
distributor and get back on
the road, knocking on doors
with a boots-on-the-ground
mentality. Doing that, we al-
ways asked a question to our
customers: What do you need
fixed? The customer wasn’t
used to that.
They started telling us
their problems, and we used our knowledge to come
up with solutions to help them to fix their problems.
It turned into the customer asking us to help them
specify the hardware and then asking us to design
it and so on. We slowly turned into a value-added
distributor. From there, we developed some of our own
products and became an integrator.
Our specialties are in dairies and breweries. It’s
how we got started in our integration business. A lot
of the automation in dairies is also found in brewer-
ies. There are many similarities in keeping the milk
cool or the beer cool.
Don’t irritate the cowsIn this application, we worked with DeLaval Direct
(www.delaval-us.com), a dairy service provider in Je-
rome, Idaho, and Glanbia Foods (www.glanbiausa.com),
which supplies raw milk
product to Glanbia’s three
processing operations located
near Twin Falls, Idaho. It was
a team effort to correct the
backflush problem.
The backflush process is
a critical element in every
dairy operation. The pipes
that transport the milk
from the vats to the siloes
go through a clean-in-place
(CIP) process to clean the
pipes of any old milk for
sanitary reasons. During
CIP, several flushes of water,
air and chemical cleaner
run through the pipes and
udder assemblies.
To avoid contamination of the milk, irritation to
the cow and potential bacterial infection, the control
sequence must be correct, allowing the proper amount
of cleaning agent to flow through the assembly for the
36 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
by Jason Clements, Landmark Industrial Service
Field logic controller solves a clean-in-place application at an Idaho dairy and provides a glimpse of the future IIoT edge devices
WHERE’S THE COW?Figure 1: A common feature of all dairies is the milk parlor; cleaning the equipment is a critical process.
CD1612_36_38_CaseStudy_featr.indd 36 11/28/16 5:10 PM
required amount of time. Run time
is critical to a successful clean-
ing process. The control sequence
must also ensure the proper
amount of water and air is used to
remove the cleaning chemicals.
Depending on the size of the
dairy, you can typically milk
from 16 to 170 cows. Each dairy
has a similar process—when the
cows are done being milked, the
operators in the dairy switch the
controls from “cows-to-vat milk
collection” to the cleaning pro-
cess. With the backflush control-
ler working intermittently, the
cows were irritated, so the dairy
needed it fixed right away.
A smarter edgeOne of the things that brought
the Turck TBEN field logic control-
ler into play is the dairy needed
something that had the brains of
a PLC, was small and compact and
was very robust. The dairy envi-
ronment is very harsh. Turck’s FLC
design includes an IP69K rating,
which is very high, and it is wash-
down capable with an extended
temperature range (Figure 2).
Something that makes the TBEN
field logic controller unique is
that it isn’t just a digital block-I/O
module; it has a brain—hence
the field logic controller name. It
has the appearance of a standard
field-mountable I/O distribution
block. Turck added a controller and
added the ARGEE program to it,
turning it into a small, rugged PLC.
With ARGEE software, a small
program was written in a struc-
tured text type of program by Turck.
A single FLC I/O block was added
with eight configurable inputs and
outputs. This single block solved the
dairy’s problem.
Although the Turck FLC uses
multiprotocol technology, which
is basically Ethernet gateways for
Profinet, Modbus TCP or EtherNet/
IP, simple digital I/O was used
to interface to the dairy’s main
controller. A button press on the
main PLC’s HMI digitally triggered
the cleaning process in the FLC.
The field logic controller controlled
the pumps and valves using digital
outputs, and a digital output noti-
fied the main PLC when the clean-
ing process was complete.
In a few hours, the dairy told
us what it needed over the phone.
We understood the process, which
included a number of timed cycles
and counters. Chemicals, water and
air all needed to flow in the proper
sequence, for a period of time and
the correct number of cycles.
The customer defined the
sequence and Landmark wrote
the program, assigned the I/O
and worked with and trained the
installation team. With quick-
disconnect cable connection to the
FLC, the installation was completed
quickly. In a couple hours it was
done and the backflush cleaning of
the milking parlor was operational.
A little program and trainingThe ARGEE program is a big benefit
in the FLC. You start programming
ARGEE by using a flowchart, which
resembles ladder logic. It’s simple
to understand and learn. Once the
flowchart/ladder logic-like pro-
gram is accepted, it is converted
to a structured text format such as
AND, OR, IF, THEN.
It was made even simpler by
providing dropdown menus in the
appropriate locations of the logic,
which are helpful hints to flow the
program together. This simplifies
the ladder logic further. If a pro-
gram can be accomplished via this
flowchart, it keeps things straight-
forward for any user.
ARGEE keeps the visual feel of
ladder logic and adds dropdown
boxes across the ladder rung.
More complex functions are typi-
cally added once the structured
text program is automatically
created keeping all levels of pro-
grammers happy.
The ARGEE programming en-
vironment is accessed using an
HTML5-compatible Web browser,
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 37
THE SMART I/O BLOCKFigure 2: The field logic controller is at home in a control enclosure or out in a harsh environment.
CD1612_36_38_CaseStudy_featr.indd 37 11/28/16 5:10 PM
MACHINE CONTROL
which eliminates the need for additional software.
The software is already in the � eld logic controller,
and it’s free. To access the ARGEE software, a Google
Chrome browser is used to log on. No need for Inter-
net, just the Chrome browser, which it is designed for,
but other HTML5-compatible Web browsers will work.
A smarter edgeThe FLC provides a great way to add logic at the edge
without investing in a PLC or installing a fragile smart
relay in an enclosure. The FLC can operate stand-
alone and out in the open, without a need to com-
municate with a PLC. It can also monitor a machine or
edge sensors and interface with a PLC where needed.
We have also used this FLC to add I/O to existing
PLCs in other applications. We did this in a mobile
cart application where the PLC had only one spare
input available. However, to operate properly, there
were six sensors that had to be monitored and deci-
sions made based on the sensor’s state and functions
being performed. More I/O was needed and program
logic was required to monitor the sensors before turn-
ing on the output to the existing PLC. With the � eld
logic controller, it was easy to add extra I/O and a little
logic to applications that didn’t have the spare space.
These TBEN � eld logic controller blocks also work well
in agriculture applications, especially on farming equip-
ment. People who may currently be using smart relays
for control applications often have problems if just a
little vibration, water, mud, dirt or dust is added to the
control panel. With the TBEN FLC and its IP69K rating,
environmental conditions are not an issue. It’s nearly
immune to shock, vibration and the elements, which
makes it a great replacement to the fragile smart relay,
and it doesn’t need to be placed in a enclosure to do it.
For this dairy application, the following morning
after installation, veterinary samples showed that the
critical metrics were accurate and working well, and
the dairy received perfect marks for cow health.
Jason Clements is vice president at Landmark
Industrial Service (www.landmark-is.com), an
integrator in Boise, Idaho. Contact him at
[email protected] or 855/322-2425.
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CD1612_36_38_CaseStudy_featr.indd 38 11/29/16 8:55 AM
MOTION
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 39
PETER HAMMOND IS the father of the Perfect Har-
mony topology—a medium-voltage (MV), variable-fre-
quency-drive (VFD) design that changed the industry.
With the U.S. patent now expired, the Perfect Harmo-
ny cell-based topology is the most imitated MV VFD
topology globally. More than 30 companies provide
similar cell-based solutions. In fact, a large fraction
of all MV VFDs produced globally are similar to the
original Perfect Harmony topology.
Hammond’s career coincides with the emergence of
the power electronics market. This market was minis-
cule until several years after the thyristor or silicon-
controlled recti� er (SCR) was invented in 1957 by GE,
because the initial voltage and current ratings were
too small. The thyristor followed a path similar to the
transistor, which was invented in 1947, but did not
mature enough for wide application for several years.
Hammond received his MSEE from Cleveland’s Case
Institute of Technology in 1966, about the time the
thyristor matured enough to build a drive that could
handle 100 hp. After graduating, he worked for several
small companies designing ac drives.
“In 1977, I joined a company called Robicon, now
part of Siemens,” says Hammond. “Back then, we made
‘me-too,’ low-voltage drives, at 600 Vac or less, using
thyristors. Our competitors were making similar drives.
Everyone knew there was a big market if we could get
beyond the low-voltage range into the medium-voltage
range—4,160 Vac, for example—with power in the
thousands, not the hundreds, of horsepower. We were
looking for ways to scale up our existing low-voltage
circuits, but there were lots of drawbacks.”
One drawback: “If the semiconductors in a typical
low-voltage circuit have the highest voltage ratings
available, it’s still not possible to achieve 4,160 Vac,”
says Hammond. “A second drawback is that, as you go
up in horsepower, the power quality becomes more
critical,” he says. “Just scaling up the existing circuits
doesn’t give you any improvements in power quality.”
Hammond was looking at ways to connect semicon-
ductor devices in series for higher voltages, but that
was very dif� cult, because the series devices needed
to turn on and off at exactly the same moment. If one
device turned off too soon, the other device would
need to support the entire voltage and would fail.
by Dave Perkon, technical editor
MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVE BIRTH CERTIFICATEFigure 1: This fi rst disclosure memo to managers at Robicon outlined the drive’s benefi ts, including effi ciency, cost savings, unity power factor and reduced harmonics.
MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
(SO
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A look at history off ers a view of how product development can
take place now and in the future
CD1612_39_43_feature4.indd 39 11/23/16 11:52 AM
MOTION
Birth of the Perfect Harmony driveOver a weekend in 1993 Ham-
mond had an idea for a new
approach for medium-voltage
drives. “Mulling over the difficulty
of connecting switching devices
in series, it suddenly dawned on
me that it would be easy to put
complete converters in series, and
that there would be many collat-
eral benefits.” says Hammond.
His disclosure memo to managers
outlined the benefits, including low
harmonics, absence of torque pulsa-
tions, quiet operation, near unity
power factor and reduced stress
on the motor (Figure 1). “These
benefits would allow a medium-
voltage drive to be installed without
a special motor, without worry-
ing about torsional resonance and
without worrying about harmonic
distortion,” he says. “Management
approved the project, and we had a
prototype drive running in a year.”
Hammond started working on
the Perfect Harmony project with
himself and one technician and
later added a draftsman. “We were
designing as we went along,” says
Hammond. “The converters—we
call them ‘cells’—were actually
easy because once you decide
to put a number of low-voltage
converters in series to get the me-
dium-voltage you need, the power
required from each converter
comes down. For example, if the
number of converters, or cells, is
12, each cell only needs to supply
one-twelfth of the power.” With
12 cells, 1,000 hp can be produced
with individual cells that are only
rated at 84 hp (Figure 2).
“Not only were the circuits
familiar from our low-voltage ex-
perience, but the devices were also
familiar.” says Hammond. “You
don’t need high-voltage devices if
you are building low-voltage cells.
You get the voltage you need by
stringing cells in series like batter-
ies in a flashlight. All the devices
and the circuits we were using
were old-hat to us.”
The only thing new that Ham-
mond’s team had to deal with
was connecting the cells in series
with each other. “The cells needed
to be electrically isolated”, says
Hammond. “That required three
things. The physical structure
supporting the cells had to be
non-conducting, so fiberglass or
other insulating materials were
used. The power for each cell had
to come from a dedicated and
isolated winding of a transformer.
And the command signals to the
devices couldn’t travel over wires;
so we had to use fiberoptics. All
these electrical isolation concepts
were easily manageable.”
The first customer was a uni-
versity in Texas. The university
ordered two drives for its campus
air-conditioning system to operate
chillers. Without a VFD, the chillers
had to run at full speed, whether it
was needed or not. The university
saved money by slowing the chill-
ers down on cool days, when the
full capacity was not needed.
Quick growth“Before we had even shipped the
first order, an engineer from an oil
company visited to witness the
testing of an existing order for 20
low-voltage pulse-width-modula-
tion (PWM) drives, to be installed
on an oil platform in the ocean,”
says Hammond. “These drives were
going to operate submersible pumps
located in wells drilled into the sea
floor, a mile or more away from the
platform. The customer understood
that it wasn’t feasible to transmit
40 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
PERFECT HARMONY TOPOLOGYFigure 2: A special transformer and multiple cells in series is basis for the Perfect Harmony medium-voltage variable frequency drive.(SOURCE: PETER HAMMOND)
Power Circuit for a Perfect Harmony Drive with 12 Cells.
CD1612_39_43_feature4.indd 40 11/23/16 11:52 AM
low-voltage power that distance, so
he planned to step up the output
from the low-voltage drives through
transformers, before he sent it to
the subsea pumps.”
Unfortunately the transform-
ers also stepped up the harmonics
and voltage steps from the drives.
“If your wave form has steps in
the voltage, each of those steps
launches a traveling wave down
the cables, and, when it reaches the
subsea pump motor at the far end,
the wave is reflected back, which
doubles the voltage step.” says
Hammond. “With a step of several
thousand Volts, you really stress
the insulation in the motor, and, if
the subsea motor fails, it is very ex-
pensive to retrieve and replace it.”
The customer’s engineer saw
the prototype Harmony VFD and
canceled the low-voltage order,
in spite of penalties, explains
Hammond. “Instead he ordered 21
Perfect Harmonies, even though
we had none running in the field,”
he says (Figure 3). “That was our
second order. Our sales group had
estimated selling only two Har-
mony drives in the first year, but
we ended up selling 47. We knew
we had a hit at that point.”
Although the ideal output volt-
age is a perfect sine wave, the
Perfect Harmony comes close
because it synthesizes the output
voltage from many small steps, to
be a good approximation to a sine
wave, notes Hammond. “This was
the feature the oil company liked
best,” he says. “Additionally, the
sources of power on oil platforms
are diesel generators, with high
impedance, so they don’t tolerate
harmonics well. The Perfect Har-
mony has very low harmonics on
the input as well as on the output.”
A third benefit the oil company
didn’t take advantage of was cell
redundancy. “Because we divide
the power circuit up into many
identical cells, we can afford to lose
one, and the drive will still operate,
if we add a simple cell-bypass fea-
ture,” says Hammond. “Although
there is some minor degradation
of the output voltage waveform, it
is far better than not being able to
run at all. The failed cell can then
be replaced when convenient.”
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The path of least resistance“The key event in my life that
pointed me toward electrical
engineering occurred when I was
in eighth grade in 1954,” says
Hammond. “I lived on a farm and
went to school in a small town.
Local merchants had problems on
Halloween, when their windows
would get soaped or painted with
graffiti. They decided to have a
contest where students painted
Halloween scenes on the windows,
and I won. The prize was to go to
the library and pick out one book.
I picked a book called, ‘A Boy and
a Battery,’ which had a bunch of
simple electrical experiments a
boy could do. I think that first got
me interested.”
Hammond won a National Merit
scholarship, so he was able to go to
California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena and received a BSEE in
1962. “I worked for a year and then
went back to graduate school at
the Case Institute of Technology in
Cleveland, Ohio, where I received
my MSEE in 1966. I then went into
the power electronics industry
and have stayed there ever since,”
says Hammond.
Hammond landed at Robicon in
1977, when they had just decided
to get into the ac drive business.
Robicon was a late comer to the
market and chose to use a current-
fed inverter design using SCRs. “I
got in on the ground floor there,
where my boss and I designed
most of the drives in that low-
voltage family. Soon after I joined
Robicon, President Carter pushed
legislation through Congress to
fund municipal sewage upgrades
all over the country. This created
a large market for variable-speed
drives. The joke was that we got
started by pumping manure.
These were low-voltage drives, but
we learned a lot from the sewage
lift station installations.”
When it rains, it pours “The motors and pumps in a sew-
age lift station must be sized for
worst-case flow during a thun-
derstorm,” explains Hammond.
“During normal conditions, the
flow is significantly less, and if the
motors and pumps continue to run
at full speed they are very inef-
ficient. With variable-speed drives
the speed can be optimized for the
actual flow, saving a lot of energy.”
The sewage lift stations are
distributed throughout the neigh-
borhoods they serve, so that they
receive power from the same util-
ity grid as the residents. “The early
low-voltage drives drew significant
harmonic currents from the grid,
causing harmonic voltage distor-
tion,” explains Hammond. “Resi-
dential neighbors were complain-
ing about their TVs flickering and a
humming noise on the telephones.”
To reduce these problems, Robi-
con tested phase-shifting between
drives, using small transform-
ers. This cancelled some of the
harmonic currents and reduced
the distortion. “This was the first
piece of the puzzle that we later
put into Perfect Harmony—cancel-
ing harmonics by phase-shifting,”
says Hammond.
Another drawback of the early
drives was that, when the motor
speed was reduced, the power fac-
tor on the input decreased. “The
drive drew more current than
was needed, because some of the
current was reactive—current was
flowing that didn’t do useful work
42 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
FIRST OF ITS KINDFigure 3: Peter Hammond, the father of the medium-voltage variable frequency drive stands next the first prototype unit.
(SO
URC
E: R
OB
ICO
N/S
IEM
ENS)
MOTION
“ So far, 20 years down the road, the Perfect Harmony is still competitive, and it’s still the same circuit. The topology still has a lot of life left in it.”
CD1612_39_43_feature4.indd 42 11/23/16 11:52 AM
because it was out of phase with the voltage,” says
Hammond. “Utilities have penalties for poor power
factor, so Robicon developed filters that both reduced
harmonic distortion and corrected the power factor.”
In the beginning, there were so few variable speed
drives in operation that the harmonic issue wasn’t
critical, notes Hammond. There were very few
complaints. However, as more and more drives were
installed, it became important. The IEEE issued Stan-
dard 519 to limit the harmonic distortion allowed.
By the mid-1980s, almost every drive order required
minimizing harmonics and power factor correction.
“The ac drive sales at Robicon went from zero in 1977
to about $20 million in 1993,” says Hammond. “Then,
when the Perfect Harmony came along, sales just ex-
ploded. By 1997 we were pushing $200 million in sales.”
The path to Perfect HarmonyA simple description of a Harmony drive would be a
group of cells with rectifiers that take three-phase ac
voltage from a special transformer and convert it to dc
voltage. The dc voltage is then converted within the
cell back to ac voltage at a different frequency, using
a PWM inverter. The inverter is a little more compli-
cated than the rectifier because the output switches
need to be controllable—in this case, using insulated
gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The cells in Perfect
Harmony contain the rectifier, a bank of capacitors to
filter the dc and the inverter devices.
In a Harmony drive, the number of cells is always a
multiple of three, to generate the three-phase output
voltage. The number of cells per phase depends on the
required maximum output voltage. Because the cells
contain capacitor banks, they don’t need to switch
simultaneously. Switching these cells at slightly dif-
ferent times reduces the step size in the output volt-
age and increases the number of steps. By controlling
the timing of many small steps, instead of a few large
steps, the output voltage can become a good approxi-
mation of a sine-wave.
Later years“Our early experience was all low-voltage,” says
Hammond. “We had a lot of learning to do when we
got into the medium-voltage market. Fortunately,
we erred on the side of caution. The first drives were
built like tanks but were expensive and bulky. As
time went on, the enclosure was trimmed down a bit,
but still got the job done. Now we are at the third or
fourth generation of drives.”
In 2005, Robicon was acquired by Siemens. The only
product Siemens wanted was the Perfect Harmony.
All other products were sold off. Hammond retired at
about the same time but continues to work part-time
as a senior consulting engineer for Siemens.
“When the Perfect Harmony first appeared, our
expectation was that a new product would only last
10 years and that we needed to start working on a
replacement immediately.” says Hammond. “But, so
far, 20 years down the road, the Perfect Harmony is
still competitive, and it’s still the same circuit. The
topology still has a lot of life left in it, and it’s still
made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sooner or later,
there will be a new medium-voltage drive design or
concept that will beat out the Perfect Harmony. We
just haven’t seen it yet.”
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 43
MEDIUM VOLTAGE BUT LARGE PLASMA ARCSTo highlight the need for arc flash protection, start by considering most voltage levels above 30 V as dangerous, but at medium-voltage levels (600 V to 69 kV), the danger present increases and so does the plasma arc’s energy. For example, with a plasma arc, the breaking point is 600 V between low voltage and medium voltage. Below 600 V, if an arc does start, it often goes out by itself, as the alternating voltage goes to zero, the arc stops unless perhaps it is an arc welder. Above 600 V, that doesn’t happen. Now you have the potential for a meltdown, sometimes an explosive one. This adds requirements to the medium-voltage world such as arc-proof enclosures.
When the arc occurs, it’s almost like an explosion, as an enormous amount of power is being pumped into the arc. This is a potential problem with all medium-voltage applications. The gas or plasma must be vented to keep the cabinet from rupturing. This requires rupture disks and possibly duct work to route the plasma to a safe area. Another issue is radiation. There is so much power concentrated in the area where the arc occurs that significant radiant heat and ultraviolet light is emitted causing a full body sunburn in a split second. Flash-proof suits and helmets are required. Wear arch flash protection equipment with the proper ratings as it may just keep you from reaching vaporizing temperatures during an arc flash incident.
CD1612_39_43_feature4.indd 43 11/23/16 11:52 AM
SCADA SOFTWARE AND INTELLIGENT DASHBOARDWebAccess 8.1 SCADA software also is an HTML5
business intelligent dashboard that can be viewed
from anywhere on any HTML5-compatible browser.
The dashboard analyzes data and helps managers
make immediate decisions; provides developers with
tools to design their own widgets and applications;
and integrates Microsoft Excel reports. Through
HTML5, as many as 1,024 clients with varying ac-
cess levels can read information and make changes
from wherever they are using either the Internet or
intranet. The software’s front end is the dashboard
and, through the HTML5 GUI, users can monitor and
diagnose issues with their end devices.
Advantech; 800/205-7940; www.advantech.com/ea
REMOTE WORKSTATION SHADOW SUPPORTVisuNet RM Shell 4.1.0 now supports a management
tool that enables shadowing of multiple workstations
from a single remote PC or notebook. The HMI software
has been retooled to support the new VisuNet Control
Center, which centralizes the control and management
of multiple virtualized
RM systems. In addi-
tion to shadowing, the
Control Center enables
remote functions such
as setup, downloads,
restarts, shutdown and
real-time monitoring.
The user-friendly dash-
board permits shadow-
ing of multiple operations from anywhere in the world.
The software also supports Raritan KVM profiles and
includes new security features such as restricted Web
browsing to preconfigured websites.
Pepperl+Fuchs; 330/486-0002; www.pepperl-fuchs.us
HMI/SCADA SOFTWARE WITH SITUATIONAL AWARENESSThis fourth-generation HMI/SCADA software is de-
signed to help operators to spend less time navigat-
ing, find critical data faster, improve alarm resolution
success, identify relevant screens for an alarm and in-
crease usability. It features a
context-rich HMI that chang-
es as users move through the
system. Navigation is derived
from a structured asset
model. Using the model, the
software provides operators
with the most relevant infor-
mation and minimizes time
to response, and the structured asset model mapped
to the SCADA database speeds configuration. Modern
technologies such as HTML5 and Web HMI allow for
centralized development and deployment, as well as
accessibility anywhere in multiple form factors.
GE Digital; www.ge.com/digital
PLC PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE WITH IOT CAPABILITYVersion 8.2.2 of the WindLDR PLC programming soft-
ware provides IoT capability by custom Web pages,
which can be configured for remote monitoring and
control. Web pages are created with the built-in Web
Page Editor using drag-and-drop functionality with no
HTML programming
required. When used
with the MicroSmart
FC6A PLC, these Web
pages are stored in the
PLC, which functions
as a Web server when
its built-in Ethernet
port is connected to
the Internet. These
Web pages can be accessed via any Web browser
running on any Internet-connected device such as a
remote PC, a tablet or a smartphone.
IDEC; 800/262-4332; www.idec.com
CLOUD COMMUNICATIONSTwinCAT IoT supports standardized protocols for cloud
communication and for sending push notifications to
smart devices. The software combines with an embed-
ded PC or industrial PC as the IoT controller, provid-
ing a connection between the IoT and the Internet of
Get with the program
[email protected] ROUNDUP
44 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
Software changes everything from design and configuration to control
CD1612_44_47_Roundup.indd 44 11/23/16 11:54 AM
Services. Collected data
are filtered, further pro-
cessed and interpreted
via TwinCAT Analytics.
Comprehensive analyses
help to enable predictive
maintenance, machine
downtime reductions
and control solution opti-
mization. The upgraded
software platform offers
users a range of func-
tions for exchanging process data via standardized
communication protocols such as AMQP and MQTT,
as well as accessing special data and communication
services offered through cloud service providers.
Beckhoff Automation; 877/twincat;
www.beckhoffautomation.com
ROBOTIC SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONMapp RoboX can be used to control
any kinematic system with up to
15 axes. The robot is designed for
simple parameterization, with
visualization and diagnos-
tics already on
board. Mapp Teach
provides intuitive
teach-in functionality to define and manage the robot’s
movement sequences and get it up and running; Mapp
technology consists of individually encapsulated
blocks that streamline development of new applica-
tions. The components provide basic functionality that
can be configured graphically, cutting development
times. All Mapp components are connected via Mapp
links. Each Mapp component retrieves the data it needs
from other components using a client-server model.
B&R Industrial Automation; www.br-automation.com
HMI + PLC SOFTWARE WITH SQL CONNECTIVITYUniLogic HMI + PLC software version 1.18 introduces
features that extend the application
reach of the UniStream all-in-one HMI
+ PLC controller.
Features include
SQL connectivity
to enable program-
mers to build SQL
queries and execute
them via ladder functions, including data transfer
between UniStream’s data tables and remote SQL da-
tabases, and conversion of HMI screens to Web pages.
Programmers also can create HMI custom controls and
then drag and drop them from the Solution Explorer,
export and import them between projects as .uluce
files or add them to the library. They also can define
tags that are local to a specific custom control.
Unitronics; 617/657-6596; www.unitronicsplc.com
DATA INVESTIGATION SOFTWARE UPDATESThe release of R15 delivers easier-to-use search, cus-
tomized trending views and asset comparisons. It in-
cludes end-user improvements such as data cleansing
and regression functions for modeling multi-variate
analysis, as well as improved
variable and operator function-
ality for process calculations.
It expands process historian
support to include Honeywell
PHD, Wonderware Historian,
Yokogawa Exaquantum Histo-
rian and GE Proficy Historian. It
also simplifies integration with
relational database offerings such as Microsoft SQL
Server and its open-source alternative MySQL, as well
as CSV file formats, to create batch and state context
from manufacturing applications and adds improved
support for data export via an OData interface for
reporting and dashboards.
Seeq; www.seeq.com
ALL-IN-ONE DRIVE, CONTROL, I/O PROGRAMMINGCombivis Studio 6 combines drive control, application
development and an HMI designer into an all-in-one
environment for programming KEB
drives, control and I/O. The new Config-
urator provides a visual tool to lay out
a project and create a bill of material.
All of the information including the
layout drawing can be exported for
proposals or tracking of a project.
The Configurator also can be used to
create a project with all objects exported
and arranged as connected. The software
simplifies the simulation and visualization of motion
processes in office environments, as well as on-site
startup and equipment optimization.
KEB America; 952/224-1400; www.kebamerica.com
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 45
CD1612_44_47_Roundup.indd 45 11/23/16 11:54 AM
PRODUCT ROUNDUP
ENHANCED DIGITAL ENTERPRISE FUNCTIONALITIESVersion 14 of the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA)
Portal includes new functionalities for the digital
enterprise. Cloud-based engineering now is included.
From their private cloud, users can access the plant
controller with the new TIA
Portal Cloud Connector or
use MindSphere, the Siemens
cloud solution for industry,
for additional digital services.
PLCSim Advanced has inter-
faces to simulation software
such as Plant Simulation and
Process Simulate, and Team-
center, a data collaboration
platform for design, planning
and engineering, has a new
interface. This version extends motion control func-
tionality and applications within the S7-1500 control-
ler family, and a multi-user function has been added
for decentralized work concepts.
Siemens; www.usa.siemens.com
FLOWCHART-BASED VISION SOFTWAREThe release of the Matrox Design Assistant 5 soft-
ware features a more image-centric approach to
project configuration whereby measurements are set
up directly on the image itself rather than through
configuration panes. The update streamlines flow-
chart creation by allowing the logic for specific events
and actions to be placed in separate
sub-flowcharts, decluttering the main
flowchart. A newly added ready-to-go
communication structure simplifies
the interface between the
vision system and a pro-
grammable logic/automation
controller. A project-specific
operator interface can be
accessed from any HTML5-
based Web browser, enabling access not just from PCs,
but also from tablets or smartphones.
Matrox Imaging; www.matrox.com
DELTA ROBOT CONTROLMotionWorks IEC 3.3 automation control software
enables delta robot users to configure and control
robots without the need to learn specialized robot
programming languages. This means that almost
any type of robot, from
articulated robots and
gantry systems to delta
robots and custom
robotic mechanisms,
can be programmed
through PLCopen part 4
function blocks. The software package is designed to
run on any Yaskawa MPiec controller, from the single-
axis MP2600iec, to the MP3200iec that offers up to 62
axes of motion control. Its function is optimized for
the MP3300iec, which offers four, eight, 20 or 32 axes
of motion control.
Yaskawa; www.yaskawa.com
SMART WIRING SOFTWARE APPLICATIONEplan Smart Wiring is a Web-based software application
that helps installers wire switchgear systems quickly
and with few, if any, errors. The product provides in-
stallers with a clear understanding in visual form and
with step-by-step in-
struction. The touch-
optimized interface
is suitable for mobile
devices, so it always
is ready for use right
at the cabinet. The
application visualizes
the mounting layout,
devices, connec-
tions and routing tracks. It can be based on a 3D layout
created by engineering in Eplan Pro Panel or from data
such as connection and wiring lists prepared in other
systems and then processed in this application.
Eplan Software & Service; www.eplanusa.com
AUTOMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENTThree new applications in the Studio 5000 environ-
ment help engineers to speed automation system de-
velopment as they design the Connected Enterprise.
The Architect application is where users can view the
overall automation system; configure devices such as
controllers, HMIs and EOIs; and manage communica-
tions between devices. The View Designer application
is the design and maintenance software for Allen-
Bradley PanelView 5500 graphic terminals. It helps
users to build contemporary systems and enhances
integration between the control system and operator
interface to improve programming efficiency and run-
46 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
CD1612_44_47_Roundup.indd 46 11/23/16 11:55 AM
time performance. The Application Code
Manager helps users to build libraries of
reusable code that can be managed and
deployed across an entire enterprise.
Rockwell Automation;
www.rockwellautomation.com
COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE WITH SCOPE, TUNER CAPABILITIESThe Design Kit, which provides easy
communication with the company’s mo-
tion controllers and PLCs, now includes a
scope and a tuner. The scope is designed
to emulate a traditional digital oscillo-
scope. It provides intuitive measuring and
zooming tools, trigger tools and autoscale.
Trigger modes include scan, auto and
normal, which allow users to customize
the waveform viewing experience. The
tuner is designed to assist in optimizing a
system’s performance. It provides a single
interface for editing filter parameters such
as pole, notch and PID. Users can edit the
controller’s torque limits, voltage offset
and feedforward parameters.
Galil Motion Control; 800/377-6329;
www.galil.com
SERVICE PACK FOR HMI SOFTWAREService Pack One of InduSoft Web Studio
v8.0 improves existing HTML5 and cus-
tom widget capabilities, introduces an
add-on conversion tool for FactoryTalk
applications and enhances IoTView. The
HTML5 capabilities have expanded to in-
clude horizontal trends. The custom wid-
gets now allow users to host third-party
applications within the InduSoft Web
Studio environment without necessitat-
ing Microsoft-specific Active/X and .NET
controls. Engineers can create custom
widgets using HTML/Jscript. Support for
the new Import Wizard for FactoryTalk
ME/SE reduces the engineering time
required for migrating applications from
FactoryTalk to InduSoft Web Studio. The
scalable, platform-agnostic IoTView run-
time also has been enhanced to improve
data and connectivity.
InduSoft; www.indusoft.com
AUTOPILOT MODE FOR 3D MODELING SOFTWAREArtec Studio 11 is designed for use with
handheld 3D scanners and a range of
sensors. The software includes Autopilot
mode to create 3D models of any size. This
feature guides users through questions
related to the characteristics of the object
being scanned and the type of 3D model
that is desired. The software then deletes
any unwanted captured data, auto aligns
the scans with one click and selects the
most effective 3D algorithms for the data
at hand. Those who prefer to have more
control over the processing experience
can enter manual mode to access the plat-
form’s data manipulation tools.
Artec 3D; www.artec3d.com
controldesign.com
REAL ANSWERSREAL ANSWERS
PUBLISHING TEAM
group publisher & vp, content
KEITH LARSON [email protected]
vp, sales & publishing director
TONY D’AVINO [email protected]
630/467-1300 ext.408
director of circulation
JACK JONES [email protected]
SALES TEAM
northeastern and mid-atlantic regional manager
DAVE FISHER [email protected]
508/543-5172 Fax: 508/543-3061
24 Cannon Forge Dr.
Foxboro, Massachusetts 02035
midwestern and southern regional manager
GREG ZAMIN [email protected]
704/256-5433 Fax: 704/256-5434
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
digital sales specialist
JEANNE FREEDLAND
805/773-4299 Fax: 805/773-0451
inside sales specialist
POLLY DICKSON [email protected]
630/467-1300 Fax: 630/467-1124
EXECUTIVE STAFF
president & ceo
JOHN M. CAPPELLETTI
cfo
RICK KASPER
vp, circulation
JERRY CLARK
vp, creative services, production
STEVE HERNER
REPRINTS
FOSTER REPRINTS www.fosterprinting.com
RHONDA BROWN
866-879-9144 ext. 194
is the only magazine exclusively
dedicated to the original equipment
manufacturing (OEM) market for
instrumentation and controls—the
largest market for industrial controls.
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
630/467-1300
Fax: 630/467-1124
CD1612_44_47_Roundup.indd 47 11/23/16 11:55 AM
A CONTROL DESIGN reader writes: As remote moni-
toring has become a reality, traditional process vari-
ables—pressure, temperature, level and flow—have
become obvious candidates for measurement. But
monitoring capabilities continue to expand through
wireless capabilities, PoE and energy harvesting for
low-power sensors. One of our customers has a factory
that’s awakening to the economic benefits of avoid-
ing equipment downtime and mitigating the risk of
environmental impact.
The ability to measure vibration and transmit that
dense data and wireless accelerometers that enable
balancing are major benefits to plants with rotating
equipment. And efforts to protect vessels, vats, pipes
and pumps from corrosion have accelerated the de-
velopment of monitoring capabilities, as well. It seems
the only limit to data is the device that collects it. What
technology developments have expanded the abilities
to monitor vibration, corrosion and other variables?
ANSWERS
Always-on dataRecent developments in vibration sensors, data acqui-
sition and analysis technologies are making vibration
analysis cheaper, easier and more widely available. We
have a vibration meter, for example, that in a couple of
seconds can measure a wide range of frequencies—10
to 1,000 Hz and 4,000 to 20,000 Hz—covering most
machine and component types.
Plus, vibration spectra can be uploaded to a smart-
phone and transmitted to always-on data centers
where the information can be accessed from anywhere.
Weishung Liu, product planner,
Fluke Industrial Group, www.fluke.com
The fourth revolutionInnovations in sensor technology occur constantly.
High-resolution cameras, microelectromechanical sys-
tems (MEMS) technology and other advanced technolo-
gies are being incorporated into smart input and output
devices all the time. These advances allow for devices
that can predict their own failures or report a need for
calibration or other adjustments. The sheer volume of
information that these devices can provide could over-
whelm the computing power of a centralized control
system. Instead of increasing the computing power and
cost of the central control system, distributed control
with lower-cost devices allows systems to handle and
act on the large amount of data provided by these
smart systems. As we move into the era of the 4th
Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0, these distributed
control devices will be critical in implementing highly
configurable and reconfigurable systems.
Tim Senkbeil, product line manager,
Industrial Connectivity Division,
Belden, www.belden.com
Reduced costWireless sensors and smart sensors that are able to
measure, analyze, compress and communicate measure-
ment and diagnostic information greatly increase the
ability to monitor vibration and other parameters thanks
in large part to the reduction in the installed cost.
Jason Tranter, founder and managing director,
Mobius Institute, www.mobiusinstitute.com
Cloud storageNowadays cloud storage transcends the traditional
memory limitations of measurement devices such as
data recorders and data acquisition systems. Today’s
products provide users with continual monitoring and
analysis functions, intelligent signal processing and
versatile fieldbus connections, all in a single device.
All measured values can be transferred to online stor-
age and will work on PCs or servers.
Stew Thompson, technical writer,
CAS Data Loggers, www.dataloggerinc.com
Limitless computing capacityFew things need to be processed onboard the measur-
ing devices. If data can be transmitted to a remote
location with high speeds leveraging technologies
like IoT, the compute capacity available over cloud is
virtually limitless. With the development in the space
of mobility and IoT, small devices with huge compute
capacity are easily available at very affordable prices.
Complex sensing like vibration, acoustics and vision,
which were once a luxury to have, are now making
their way into every possible application. Research
in advanced sensing is making complex measuring
possible. A lot has been discussed about the ability
to detect fatigue stress in mechanical components
with minimal sensory devices attached to it. This has
48 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
Monitor vibration and corrosion
[email protected] ANSWERS
CD1612_48_49_RealAnswers.indd 48 11/23/16 11:56 AM
huge potential in industries such as aviation or asset-
intense operations such as oil and gas.
Corrosion is another important area where sensing is
possible. Today large and expensive equipment can have
the ability to have built-in corrosion sensing. Alterna-
tively, people use measuring devices for test purposes. A
lot needs to improve, so that it will be possible to include
built-in capability in a wide variety of applications.
Development in these areas are eased with the
advent of edge-computing technology, but this also
needs help from fundamental research around the
physics and science of the phenomena being mea-
sured. Techniques for measuring corrosion potential,
hydrogen flux monitoring or other forms of chemical
analysis are commonly used in crafting non-intrusive
corrosion detection, but this needs further develop-
ment for sensors to be versatile.
Mitesh Patel, head of Internet of Things,
manufacturing industry solution unit,
TCS, www.tcs.com
Potent portablesPortable vibration data collection devices that, in addi-
tion to triaxial vibration readings, allow audio and visu-
al recording into an onboard database and synchronize
that database with the cloud platform are a very power-
ful tool. Other very effective enhancements available
are refined automated diagnostics systems that con-
sider all machinery readings and surrounding systems
in producing the diagnosis. Devices that provide for
live interaction between specialists and the technician
gathering the readings and sharing of the data via the
cloud with other plants or areas in the enterprise are
very powerful tools in condition monitoring.
Joe Van Dyke, vice president of operations,
Azima DLI, www.azimadli.com
Data into informationInformation-driven manufacturing increases require-
ments for sensor-based data from manufacturing
assets, resulting in a trend toward increased function-
ality at the sensor level, specifically increased signal
processing capability, energy management, self-
monitoring and miniaturization.. The simple sensors
of the past have morphed into increasingly integrated
and intelligent sensor systems, boasting hardware
with ever greater capabilities. Sensors are increasingly
able to perform correction computations, compen-
sate for cross-sensitivity, provide application-specific
algorithms, perform self-monitoring and contain their
own communication interface. Faster signal process-
ing with lower noise levels and higher resolution
consumes less energy and is suitable for operation in a
wider range of ambient conditions. Of course, wire-
less communication technology enables installation
of sensors in remote areas that have historically been
cost-prohibitive to monitor.
Paula Hollywood, senior analyst,
ARC Advisory Group, www.arcweb.com
Digital highwaysMEMS technology for accelerometers has created self-
diagnosing sensors for calibration verification. This
allows for permanent continuous monitoring that le-
verages trending instead of requiring high-level train-
ing and skill in difficult physic theory. Access to digital
highways enables transportation of information to
concentrated skilled centers. The digital revolution is
now surpassing humans as the interface, as machines
will interact directly.
Bob Drexel, product manager, process sensors,
ifm efector, www.ifmefector.com/us
More processing powerThere can be several limitations when it comes to get-
ting data for diagnostics. From the sensor and acquisi-
tion standpoint, the ever-increasing processing power
is helping to drive more data and information collection
from machines. High-speed sensors and measurement
equipment coupled with processing at the edge means
the benefits of high-speed data can be coupled with ex-
isting network bandwidth and storage restrictions. This
is helping the transition from route-based strategies to
permanently online strategies and ultimately provide
better coverage of expanding asset fleets.
The growth of platforms are expanding the sensing
capability of diagnostic measurement systems. If you
were to take apart a system designed to measure vi-
bration, one for motor current and one for shaft align-
ment, you would find many similar—not identical, to
be sure—components. The platform approach looks at
these solutions as dozens of discrete functions, rather
than three unique devices. The common functions are
grouped and shared to form the core of the platform
while the unique functions are designed as modular
hardware and software components. This makes it
easier to expand systems with new measurements
and capabilities because new design is reduced to the
unique segmenting elements of the new capability,
rather than a whole new design.
Brett Burger, principal marketing engineer,
National Instruments, www.ni.com
controldesign.com December 2016 Control Design 49
CD1612_48_49_RealAnswers.indd 49 11/23/16 11:56 AM
Dave Perkon • technical editor • [email protected]
STARTING AND STOPPING a motor can be done with
three common methods: a motor starter, soft start or
variable frequency drive (VFD). As of late, the use of
a VFD is becoming more popular than ever due to its
claimed ef� ciency bene� ts, but be sure it is needed.
And, once speci� ed, it must be properly installed to
ensure reliable operation.
To start, take a step back and be sure you need a
VFD for the application, as many users don’t realize
real bene� ts. Do you need to vary the speed of the
motor or change the motor’s acceleration? If neither, a
motor starter is simple and will work great. Just want
to soften the motor starts? Consider a soft starter. For
all the above, a VFD may be the best choice.
The VFD, often called an ac drive or inverter, takes
a single- or three-phase signal and varies the speed of
a three-phase ac induction motor. This is its main ben-
e� t. Running a motor more slowly can save signi� cant
energy, and speed changes may be useful to the appli-
cation. Another bene� t is adjustable acceleration and
deceleration. Less acceleration softens the mechanical
forces at motor start and reduces inrush current.
There are both physical and electrical installation
basics to be aware of when using a VFD. When mount-
ing the VFD on a back panel, be sure to check the
speci� cations. It is common for multiple devices to be
installed in one location, but all VFDs need proper air
� ow, so check the installation instructions carefully
when laying out a control panel. Mount the drives
vertically. Some drives can be mounted with no clear-
ance, but it’s common to have a minimum side-to-side
spacing of 50 mm or more and to have vertical clear-
ance above and below the drive of 100 mm to 150 mm.
It’s not uncommon to hear about noise problems
in VFD applications. However, proper shielding and
grounding and the use of � lters or line reactors can help.
If multiple VFDs are installed in a single location, don’t
daisy-chain the ground wire; it creates ground loops.
Connect each ground to a single ground point. The line
reactor can help to protect from transient voltages and
reduce harmonics to or from the drive. Keeping the load-
side wiring less than 75 ft between the drive and motor
helps to reduce the potential insulated-gate bipolar
transistor (IGBT) re� ective wave damage.
Electrically, proper run/stop control of the VFD is
important. Many manufacturers do not recommend
using contactors or disconnect switches on the line or
load side of a VFD for run/stop control of the ac drive
and motor, except for emergency situations. Opening
a contactor at the line or load side of a VFD while the
motor is running can cause failures in the inverter
section of the drive or reduce its life. Even if it doesn’t
cause failure, it can take several seconds for a VFD to
power on once power is applied.
A VFD is typically controlled via start/stop digital
inputs and a speed-control signal, using a 0-10 Vdc, 4-20
mA or potentiometer analog input signal or a speed
preset programmed into the drive. However, a proper
risk assessment will likely show a safe-stop function is
required as well. This functional safety capability, often
called safe torque off (STO), as de� ned by EN IEC 61800-
5-2, is an option on many VFDs that should be speci� ed.
With any motor control circuit, proper overcurrent
and ground-fault protection is required at the input of
the device. A typical VFD accepts single-phase voltage,
but it is not intended for use with single-phase motors.
Although a standard three-phase induction motor works
with a VFD, a three-phase inverter duty motor should be
used. The inverter duty motor is more energy ef� cient
when used with a VFD. It is also not susceptible to over-
heating at low motor speeds and has more low-speed
torque compared to a standard induction motor.
There are two basic types of VFDs: the original scalar
control type and the newer vector control type. The sca-
lar control is open-loop using a voltage-frequency ratio
and, although it provides great speed regulation, ~0.5%,
it does not have a fast response nor is it very precise. The
vector control can be open- or closed-loop and uses cur-
rent control of two vectors, torque and magnetizing � ux
for more responsive and precise control of the motor.
There are many more factors, features and func-
tions to consider when using a VFD, so study the
catalogs and manuals and then get with your vendors.
With constant-torque or constant-speed applications,
such as conveyors, compressors or mixers, there may
be simpler options. However, whether replacing a dc
motor or varying the speed and acceleration of your
conveyor, fan, blower or pump, go with the VFD op-
tion. It’s often the best choice, if installed properly.
50 Control Design December 2016 controldesign.com
Installation tips for VFDs
Although a standard three-phase induction motor works with a VFD, a three-phase inverter duty motor should be used.
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