Leine & Linde are taking a look at the future of industrial communication technology in a project in collaboration with Free2Move of Halmstad, Sweden.
The development of techniques for communication via radio instead of by wire is rapidly expanding, with most of the solutions aimed at applications for home and office. Bluetooth wireless technology has been spoken about a lot recently, and appears to be the technique most manufacturers agree upon. For many producers and users, the pricing looks set to be quite favourable.
Now that most of the excitement about Bluetooth technology has died down, industry has begun to take a closer look. It has been demonstrated that Bluetooth wireless technology works well, even in industrial environments, with their many sources of interference.
Leine & Linde are making ADS communication wireless through the use of Bluetooth wireless technology. This means that diagnostic data from the encoder can be sent to a PC without the use of extra wiring. As per the past, the incremental signals are still connected to the control system by cables, since none of today's radio communication systems have the required data transfer speed. The RF data range is 10 m but this can be extended to 100 m with the use of an amplifier. This means that all diagnostic data from encoders within a radius of 10 m can be read off wirelessly. LAN nodes can be placed at strategic points in the factory, allowing all diagnostic data to be fed into the PC network.
As the technology continues to develop, in the near future it will be possible to have diagnostic information available via cellular telephone or PDA.
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