Drives & Controls October 2022

TECHNOLOGY n THEN CNC SPECIALIST NUM has launched a “radically new”CNC platform that combines CNC and PLC functions in one device, and is it claimed to set new performance benchmarks for machine control. Compared to the company’s previous Flexium+ CNC system, the new FlexiumPro platform is more than 10 times faster – from boot time and block-per- second execution, to axis control, PLC/CNC data exchange, robot and peripheral I/O interfaces. It is also said to offer significant advances in connectivity and reliability. NUM is also launching a new series of high- performance one-, two- and four-axis drives and a four-axis power supply. The DrivePro drives can control almost any type of electric motor, including spindle, servo, linear, torque, synchronous and asynchronous machines. The control loop of each axis can be closed with up to three external sensors – typically a motor encoder, a machine encoder such as a linear scale, and an accelerometer. The DrivePro drives incorporate multi-core ARM processors and are implemented using advanced SoC (system-on-chip) technology. To avoid latency and overheads, there is no operating system between the CPUs and the software. Each NUM DrivePro controller can handle up to four axes simultaneously, with a position loop sampling time of 50μs, and each drive can support up to 99 parameter sets. When equipped with the NUM-SAMX option, the drives offer the following safety functions: STO; SS1/2; SOS; SLS; SLP; SDM; SCA and SBC. The functions are activated through the system’s safe PLC using FSoE (Failsafe over EtherCat), thus avoiding the need for dedicated safety wiring. The FlexiumPro system’s real-time kernel (RTK) combines an embedded Codesys V3 PLC with a CNC controller. Also based on a multi- core ARM processor, the RTK uses SoC technology. The tightly integrated technology helps to cut component counts, improving reliability and saving space. The single-board, fan-less design is 25mmwide. The CNC system’s hard real-time operating system reduces latency and avoids the time overheads of“soft”operating systems. The hardware and firmware have been optimised to maximise machine precision and performance, and to offer secure connections. The PLC application, part programs, machine configuration, calibration data and so on, are all saved on microSD cards. The RTK uses supercapacitors to keep the system alive for long enough to save all data in the event of a hard power-off. Machine users and OEMs familiar with the Flexium+ CNC systemwill find it easy to migrate to FlexiumPro. Its PLC programming languages and environment are identical, part programs are compatible, software interfaces to custom HMIs are similar, and the EtherCat terminals and safety devices are unchanged. FlexiumPro retains and extends all behavioural and functional aspects of Flexium+. These include controlling up to 32 axes and/or spindles, up to 32 machining channels, and sub-nanometre interpolation. NUM has also developed an new user interface that can incorporate OEM-defined modules with integrated functions related to their technologies. Previously, OEMs often had to develop dedicated HMIs for specific technologies in their products, which could be expensive and time-consuming. www.num.com Next-gen CNC platform is ten times faster, and includes high-performance drives NUM’s FlexiumPro system combines CNC and PLC functions in 25mm-wide modules and includes new high-performance drives