Figure 2: The commissioning wizard (here in the ASi Control Tools360 software) guides you step by step through the addressing of ASi modules.

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Roller drives with a 24 _VDC or 48 VDC _power supply are also a standard drive solution in conveyor technology. Here too, simple applications with start/stop, left/right movement or opening/closing can be realized with ASi-3 solutions. For more complex applications, there are special ASi-5 motor modules for motorized rollers from manufacturers such as Interroll, Itoh Denki and Rulmeca. What they all have in common is that the modules control the motorized rollers directly and without an additional control unit via ASi. Each ASi module can simultaneously supply two roller drives with energy and connect them to the data communication. Here, too, it is possible to change speeds and ramps cyclically and continuously. The ramps for braking and accelerating the conveyor line can also be stored as individual parameters for each drive.

Figure 3: Inputs and outputs can be monitored live with the online bus information (here in the Asimon360 software).

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The ASi-5 modules with integrated IO-Link master offer the option of integrating intelligent actuators - including smart drives with IO-Link - into the system control via ASi-5. The fine-grained scalability of the connection modules, which are available with one, two, four and eight IO-Link master ports, helps to save costs - the user only invests in the IO-Link ports that they actually need. This technical and economic efficiency cannot currently be achieved in this form by IO-Link fieldbus modules, which are usually equipped with eight IO-Link master ports and an individual Ethernet interface.

AS-Interface in implementation

Figure 4: Diagnostic tools in the Bihl+Wiedemann software suites enable continuous monitoring of the actual status of ASi networks.

© Bihl+Wiedemann

AS-Interface can make full use of all its strengths as a wiring technology in drive technology. Bihl+Wiedemann provides support in the planning and commissioning of ASi installations (Fig. 2). The software suites 'Asimon360' (with safety function, Fig. 3) and 'ASi Control Tools360' (without safety function) with integrated hardware catalog not only help with the planning and commissioning of ASi networks, but also ensure efficient addressing and parameterization of the modules in the field. Among other things, they offer the option of copying the settings of a module as often as required: So if several frequency inverters with identical parameterization are used in a system, the values only need to be saved once and can then be transferred to others. In addition, only one IP address and only one web server are required for all participants to control up to 124 inverters or up to 248 roller drives, for example. When addressing participants on site in the conveyor application, the new ASi-5/ASi-3 addressing device makes it possible to assign an address to bus participants without the need for a real bus structure to already exist. Another function within the software suites is online bus information; this allows devices to be addressed from a PC, parameterized live and inputs and outputs to be monitored. The user can see what specific effects the updated settings have on the operation of the conveyor technology and can adjust the configuration if necessary.

The author: Thomas Rönitzsch is responsible for corporate communications at Bihl+Wiedemann in Mannheim.

© Bihl+Wiedemann

The software suites also provide diagnostic tools for the ongoing monitoring, maintenance and troubleshooting of applications (Fig. 4). In addition to precise error descriptions, these also provide specific solution proposals that ensure efficient troubleshooting. When systems are accepted, test reports can be created as PDFs and saved with the machine documentation.