Newsdesk - July/August 2001

Welsh manufacturing gets a close look at fieldbus options

Following a visit from Profibus expert Manfred Popp, University of Wales College Newport has been confirmed as Wales' first and the UK's second Profibus Competence Centre (PCC). Equipped with a substantial Profibus DP and PA demonstration system, the Centre will become a valuable resource to Profibus users, helping to satisfy the increasing demand for Profibus training and providing independent consultancy on Profibus applications.

The Newport campus isn't simply home to the PCC: it also houses a wider Fieldbus Development Centre, partly supported by the European Regional Development Fund. It has a remit to develop fieldbus technology and to demonstrate and promote it to small, medium and large enterprises in South Wales. The opening of the new PCC brings the total number of Centres worldwide to 21.

Delegates attending the inaugural seminar of the Fieldbus Development Centre were so fascinated by a robot demonstration that it has been adopted as a permanent feature. The robot is built around Interact, Hoerbiger-Origa's fieldbus integrated pneumatic drive.

Dave John, commercial manager for the University's Engineering Department says: "We originally went to Hoerbiger- Origa for a conventional valve island, but when we explained our intentions they suggested Interact would be a far better alternative. Its intrinsic simplicity is just what we are trying to demonstrate to potential fieldbus users."

Interact intelligent actuators incorporate all ancillary control equipment, including an ASi fieldbus interface, into a standard pneumatic axis. Two-way communication between the Interact drive unit and the robot's PLC controller is provided over the fieldbus.

In fact, the rotary actuator and gripper are not fieldbus enabled, but are hardwired to an ASi 'Airbox' which decodes the ASi signal to actuate integral valves within the box. Hoerbiger-Origa supplies Airboxes for just this situation, allowing conventional pneumatic components to mimic Interact's 'plug and play' connectability.

"System integration and installation is particularly simple with Interact," Dave John enthuses. "The concept dispenses with complex electro-pneumatic circuit design and configuration, separate control panels and tedious commissioning procedures. Interact therefore provided us with significant time and cost savings when we were building our multi-axis robot, and further savings in relation to maintenance and reconfiguration. When we show our delegates how they too can achieve such savings, we often see their eyes light up and we know we have won them over to fieldbus control solutions."

The Newport Centre also has a number of other demonstrations to show other protocols, including intrinsically safe fieldbuses, and will be steadily developing its services to industry with time. "Currently in South Wales fieldbus is most popular with process companies," says Dave John. "But another of our goals is to get the region's discrete parts manufacturers to embrace fieldbus equally enthusiastically.

• The Profibus Group
  Email c118@industrialnetworking.co.uk
  
• Hoerbiger-Origa
  Email c119@industrialnetworking.co.uk