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WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 02/2019 (EN)

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WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 02/2019 (EN)

01 Powerful and solid:

01 Powerful and solid: safety over IO-Link in a machining center A manufacturer of high-precision machining centers and even more of their customers have already learned to appreciate the advantages of the bi-directional communication interface IO-Link. In their new MCC series the company has used Safety over IO-Link to integrate safety into the overall concept of IO-Link. This makes the processes simpler, more efficient, cost-effective and of course safer. Author: Wolfgang Zosel, freelance editor, Reutlingen, Germany AUTOMATION With its blue, gray and black painted cladding and ca. 8 x 3 m, 3.5 m high MCC 630 simply radiates elegance and power. You get the feeling of solid performance, precision and reliability behind the compact dimensions. Not visible is the fact that this is a new model of series production machine with a complete set of possible uses. Nor is it obvious that behind the facade of this machining center is a modern control and safety concept from Balluff based on the digital IO-Link standard. With Safety over IO-Link from Balluff the system has the world’s first simple to install and easy to retrofit IO-Link safety system on-board. The advantage: Both Balluff safety components as well as safety devices from other manufacturers can be easily connected to the newly developed Balluff safe I/O module using M12 standard cable. Even standard components such as binary sensors can be bundled via the new safety I/O module. This also eliminates the need for a separate hub. Now the prerequisites for fully transparent configuration and diagnostics solutions, flexible and safe machine operation, as well as innovative Industry 4.0 concepts are provided. Flexible, fully digitized 5-axis machining centers Burkhardt+Weber (BW) has since 2012 been part of Indústrias Romi S.A., the largest machine tool builder in Brazil. With around 250 employees BW is today an international manufacturer of machining centers for complex steel, cast and titanium parts of the highest quality. Notable among their customers in addition to those in the machine tool sector are many in the aerospace and diesel motor industry. Whether stand-alone or as part of an interlinked production system, the series MCC 630 and MCC 800 flexible, fully digitized 5-axis machining centers process workpieces efficiently and ready-to-install with just a few setups. In general it is the large motor or transmission parts that demand a number of various milling, drilling, turning and measurement cycles. Beneficial partnership Balluff has been a technology provider and consultant to Burkhardt+Weber for over 20 years. “The cooperation over all the years has been outstanding, and we consider Balluff a reliable, creative and innovative partner,” says Benjamin Rother, Manager of Electronic Design. He remembers when six years ago Nico Schmid, Sales Engineer at Balluff, first presented the intelligent IO-Link interface. “At that time we wanted to wait and see how this new standard would develop. But since 2014 we have been consistently and committedly using IO-Link in our machining centers,” adds Benjamin Rother. Until then BW still used the traditional fieldbusbased wiring systems as the standard. Systematically separated from the standard signals, the safety-relevant signals were gathered in the field via ProfiNet. Cumbersome, complicated wiring was the order of the day, as were a variety of different cable types, sensors, 28 WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 2019

01 Machining centre MCC 630 series from Burkhardt+Weber in interlinked configuration 02 Machining table and spindles of the fully digitized 5-axis machining centers process workpieces efficiently 03 Balluff IO-Link safety hub (yellow) together with IO-Link master and sensor hubs provide essential services 02 03 actuators as well as tedious setup procedures. Beyond the actual switching signal there was only little usable and processable information available from the process or sensor level. When conceiving the new MCC series, the engineers at Burkhardt+Weber pursued a clear objective: in addition to characteristic BW features such as force, precision and availability, performance features were required which should benefit the manufacturer and operator equally: reducing the complexity in cabling, plug-in cables instead of discrete wiring, shortening the installation and commissioning phase, more transparency and information about what is happening in-place, and support through simple to use configuration, diagnostic and service concepts. Requirements that could be meet with amazing ease using the bi-directional communication interface IO-Link. IO-Link with conviction The new MCC machining centers are impressive power packs based on torsionally stiff cast components. With two independently operated plate changers, clamping a new workpiece is possible while the other one is being processed by a tilting spindle behind a safe chip protection door along five axes. The connected magazine holds more than 100 tools and can be easily expanded up to 320 slots. The tools are automatically fed and are equipped with Balluff industrial RFID systems. Processing capacity up to 1.5 tons (or 2.5 tons for the MCC 800), axis drives with 17.5 kN feed and motor spindles with speeds up to 12,000 rpm tell you that safety for man and machine is a central topic here. Each machining center comes with multiple interlocks, light curtains, and all drives, suspended loads such as the opened chip protection door as well as the obligatory E-Stop buttons are monitored. There was just no competition for “Safety over IO-Link! In interlinked production and assembly operations efficiency is especially important if high-performance systems are to have an optimal price-performance ratio. IO-Link offers us as the systems builder and even more so our customers a plethora of advantages,” says Benjamin Rother. Safety over IO-Link from Balluff is the logical extension of the IO-Link philosophy and uses the advantages of IO- Link and Profisafe for safety-relevant signals as well. Like IO-Link, Safety over IO-Link also features simple system construction, timeand cost-saving wiring, minimal control cabinet space requirements and lean system concepts. Safety always ends up on stop, as Safety over IO-Link applications can be adapted quickly and simply to changing requirements. Perfectly equipped Every machining center in the MCC series comes with a broad spectrum of Balluff products and systems: ten IO-Link sensor hubs with eight in- and outputs each collect the signals from the distributed sensors and actuators, including numerous inductive and optical sensors from Balluff. The sensor hubs are configured as needed for the requirement, i.e. 16 signals can be freely assigned, all of which can be connected as is typical for IO-Link using standardized 3-conductor cable with M12 connectors. The sensor hubs channel to six installed ProfiNet IO-Link masters. Three Balluff safety hubs serve as safety gates. In addition to the industrial RFID systems, optional inductive couples from Balluff can be used: these transmit power and signals without contact over an air gap of up to five mm. They are generally used where fixed wiring of sensors and actuators gets in the way, for example on rotary index tables and tool changers. As with the MCC series: as tools are placed in the machine, the controller does not release the gantry axes of the loading system until the clamping devices has reported perfect seating of the part to be processed via the opposite coupler modules. Best combination: automation and safety technology The safety-relevant data are handled both safety and simply, as Safety over IO-Link uses elements of Profisafe. The IO-Link master itself remains a non-safety standard device and is considered a “black channel”: the transported data are tunneled through the master to the control level safely and untouched and only there are they unpacked. The final programming is done using drag-anddrop from the programming interface of the controller. Automation and safety technology in one results in more economical and more productive system concepts. “The entire pallet of virtues that IO-Link brings with it, the simple integration of safety in the same system, provided the impetus for relying on the integrated Balluff Safety over IO-Link concept in the new MCC series. We give our customers high-performance machining centers at an outstanding price-performance ratio that sets new standards when it comes to configuration, flexibility and service and which are Industry 4.0 ready in every respect,” summarizes Benjamin Rother. Photos: 01 Burckhardt + Weber, 02-03 Balluff www.balluff.com WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 2019 29