With 'Vario-X', Murrelektronik presents a modular automation platform with which automation functions can be implemented completely decentrally, i.e. without control cabinet architecture. The platform brings sensors and actuators into the direct machine environment and ensures reliable voltage, signal and data management with the seamless integration of decentralized servo drives.
At the heart of the platform are waterproof and dustproof housings with IP65 protection, which contain the power supply, controller, switches, safety technology and I/O modules. They can be snapped side by side into a robust backplane with integrated machine construction profiles so that the entire station can be attached to all standard profile systems without any further protection. According to the manufacturer, it can even withstand footfall in extreme cases. Equipped with a multi-core CPU, the 'Vario-X' controller can be integrated into all higher-level industrial Ethernet networks as an open control platform.

The sensors and actuators are installed and wired using the plug-and-play principle with pre-assembled M12 and MQ15 connectors. This eliminates time-consuming and expensive installation work on the control cabinet, such as stripping, inserting wire end sleeves and clamping. If one station is not sufficient for the entire machine control system, additional stations can be placed decentrally in the machine and connected to each other, for example for an additional power supply. Individual IO modules can also be installed directly on the sensors/actuators without a backplane in order to collect signals directly there. "Thanks to the integrated installation concept alone, Vario-X shortens a machine installation by around 40 percent," says Olaf Prein, Head of Global Business Unit Automation at Murrelektronik.

However, 'Vario-X' is not just backplanes, controllers, cables and the like; the automated system has a digital twin right from the start: a moving 1:1 image of the real system that contains all the functions and parameters of the future system - right from the project phase. Murrelektronik kinematizes the design files of machines and systems in special software, in which the later movements and processes can then be simulated. The same control program runs in the digital twin as later on the real machine. In addition, the digital system can be 'placed' directly in the future production hall using augmented reality on a cell phone or tablet so that all movement sequences can be viewed virtually in advance. Fitters can use the digital twin as a '3D construction plan', for example via an augmented reality app or virtual reality glasses.