Plugging a hole in the fieldbus market
With so
many buses and so many devices to be hooked onto them, the array
of product variants is bewildering. But ABB has eliminated the complexity
of connection with a universal plug
Transferring
data around a plant quickly and efficiently is the key to optimising
manufacturing processes. Automation isn't simply about intelligent
products - it's about effective communication, and increasingly
the channel of choice is a fieldbus of some flavour.
Walk into any
manufacturing, processing or power facility and you see hundreds
of actuators and sensors communicating with their controllers over
a bus link. Industry has come to accept that there is no single,
all-encompassing fieldbus solution, and a single installation can
see a number of fieldbus variants operating side by side on different
layers of the automation strategy.
As the number
of devices being connected to these buses increases, the issue of
connectivity and compatibility is becoming a major headache for
vendors and users alike. Vendors have to make provisions in their
design for the multitude of fieldbuses onto which the device may
be hung, whilst the fieldbuses involve control wiring that is time-consuming
and prone to failure during installation. Such complexity is at
odds with the fieldbus promise of simplicity. What end users and
system integrators really want is the ability to 'plug and produce'.
The new ABB
FieldBusPlug (FBP) concept has been designed to vastly simplify
life in the bus world. ABB products can now be offered in one variant
only - and with a 'neutral', fieldbus-independent interface. Finding
different products for different target buses is a thing of the
past: now you just attach the appropriate FBP for the fieldbus involved
to the product, and it's ready for connection to the bus.
The FBP is
suitable for all kinds of manufacturing machines, as well as other
factory equipment that requires large number or binary sensor signals
or other actuators to be connected via a fieldbus.
Because plug-in
connectors are used to attach the product to the fieldbus and the
supply voltage, there is no need to cut, isolate and prepare cables.
Productivity is also enhanced, since ready-to-use units facilitate
faster installation and commissioning, fewer sources of potential
failure, and shorter service and maintenance downtime periods. Because
there is only a single product variant needed for a number of buses,
stocking spare devices is simplified.
For devices
mounted in the field, the FBP offers the assurance of IP65 protection,
with special packaging of the electronics being the key. ABB has
trimmed the fieldbus electronics to match the requirements of an
IP65 environment, giving attention to size restrictions, thermal
considerations, shock-proof mounting and more.
Software
mapping
In software,
ABB mapped the functionality of the different buses to a common
device communication scheme. This scheme also has to provide some
'scalability', as complex devices make greater demands on communication
than do simple sensors. Finally the connectors for the fieldbus
side had to be squeezed into the design, making it easier to wire
the fieldbus and the supply voltage.
Controllers
and starters will be the first products onto the market to benefit
from the FBP. ABB's MSD11-FBP motor starter has been designed with
the FBP in mind, with the starter communicating its command and
status data via a fieldbus. Rather than supplying a different product
for each potential fieldbus, ABB can offer a single starter with
the appropriate FBP.
AS-i and DeviceNet
are the first buses to be supported, and ABB is currently working
on Profibus DP. The company will then look to start technical pre-studies
for Ethernet and CANOpen.
ABB
h149@industrialnetworking.co.uk
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