Complete packages and modular automation solutions for printing machinery will take centre-stage with Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) at the IPEX 2006 in Birmingham, England. With modular software and integrated communication solutions shortening the time-to-market for mechanical equipment manufacturers and therefore offering the user a high level of investment protection, Siemens will present a selection of system and drive solutions for automation in the printing and converting industry.
The Siemens presentation at this year's IPEX trade fair will focus on system packages based on the Sinamics drives family, as well as Motion Control solutions with Profinet, realtime Ethernet.
The Sinamics S120 AC Drive is a converter for high-performance single-axis applications as well as multi-axis applications in the printing industry. The converter is also suitable for retrofit projects for high-performance printing machinery. Thanks to its modular design, the new drive type can be used for multi-axis applications and thus for synchronous and motion control applications.
The Sinamics S120 AC Drive converters are designed for a performance range of up to 250 kW. The control unit is available with Profibus and Profinet interface. Energy efficiency and regenerative capabilities have long been high on the agenda in the printing industry. With 'Smart Infeed' and 'Active Infeed', Siemens (A&D) will present two power recovery concepts for the Sinamics drives family.
The current from regenerative operation of drives is fed back into the network. Depending on the requirements of an application and its environment, either Smart Infeed is used as a standard solution, or Active Infeed is used for especially high plant availability and network quality. For applications that do not require power recovery, Siemens offers a low-cost solution with the 'Basic Infeed' version.
The focus at the trade fair will also be on automation solutions for modular machine concepts as well as software packages with special links for the printing industry. Profinet with IRT is suitable as an integrated communication solution for multi-axis applications, such as in rotary offset printing presses for illustrations and newspapers, as well as in print finishing.
A rotary offset machine for illustrations is modular in design and comprises, for example, four printing groups, drier, folder support and folder. To ensure productivity, more than 30 axes are coordinated. The axes are distributed over seven axis groupings with Simotion D and Sinamics and they communicate via IRT Profinet. As well as realtime communication, Profinet is also used for IT tasks such as operator control and monitoring, and diagnostics. This involves accessing the OPC-XML server that is integrated into Simotion D and provides process-level data and drive data.
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