Drives and Controls January 2023

n TECHNOLOGY January 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com 18  F or more Technology News visit www.drivesncontrols.com MURRELEKTRONIK has developed a technology that, it says, will help to avoid errors during automation installations, and deliver time savings of up to 70%. The uKonn-X system is designed to make the planning and installation of automation technologies more efficient. The company describes the development as “the first seamless, digitally and visually supported system with bidirectional communication between design, development, assembly and commissioning”. Murrelektronik says the system solves several problems at a stroke. Machine installation, it argues, is still complex, time- consuming, tedious and error-prone. Circuit diagrams – often several hundred pages long – have to be read, understood and correctly transferred to a cabling system. Sensors, actuators, switches, power supplies and other items have to be interconnected. As a result, it is not uncommon for troubleshooting and corrections to take longer than the actual installation and documentation. The new system cuts installation and commissioning times, allowing machines to start operating sooner. By simplifying the process, it could also help tackle the shortage of skilled personnel. The system is based on the digitisation of physical components and communications processes. A machine installer or commissioning engineer first uses a mobile scanner to read a code on the Murrelektronik connectors needed for a project. This brings up a circuit diagram and a 3D model on a touchscreen tablet display, showing which components need to be connected to each other. LEDs light up on fieldbus modules in the machine to indicate which ports to use. Once an installation step has been completed, the installer confirms this on the touch display, which triggers an automatic documentation process. The system also interprets the circuit diagram and creates a bill of materials (BOM). Murrelektronik assembles the required connectors and supplies them with the machine-readable markings. If a customer requests it, the company can deliver connectors sorted according to their position in a machine. So the process is: take a component or connector, scan it, identify the correct port, attach or plug it in, confirm and trigger the documentation. If changes are needed to the installation, the installer can communicate these digitally to the design department, helping to improve the machine design, while also ensuring accurate documentation. “Time savings of up to 70% can be achieved during installation and commissioning alone,” says Murrelektronik board member, Dr Paul Zeller. “Our system also significantly shortens troubleshooting.” Zeller adds that the company has transferred its expertise in decentralised electrical installation technologies to the digital world “and also made it intuitive for the user with the help of visual support to ensure a new level of quality”. Murrelektronik has made electrical installations “simply seamless,” he contends. www.murrelektronik.com/de p Phoenix Contact has released a new version of its mGuard Secure Cloud which supports high-availability VPN connections to China, and new router generations for the secure connection of machines and systems. Encrypted VPN connections to systems in China are becoming increasingly unreliable and, at times, not possible at all due to legal restrictions. With the new China VPN+ service, the mGuard Secure Cloud provides a highly available and officially approved solution in cooperation with the Chinese authorities and the state provider, China Mobile. It can be used to establish encrypted VPN connections between mGuard devices in China and the mGuard Secure Cloud without affecting security or data integrity. www.phoenixcontact.co.uk p Rockwell Automation has released an expansion of its FactoryTalk Logix Echo controller emulation system which it claims is the first such platform to support safety controllers. Version 2 of the platform adds GuardLogix 5580 controllers which users can download to emulate both standard and safety tasks in projects. The new release supports the creation and communication of multiple chassis with one license. Users can configure and arrange controllers/slots without limitations, adding flexibility for multiple users to access different controllers that can all live in their respective positions. www.rockwellautomation.co.uk p Hitachi Metals says that by optimizing the design of motors using its high- performance NMF 15 ferrite magnets, it has been able to achieve the same level of output as traction motors containing neodymium magnets, without needing to use rare-earth materials. Neodymium magnets contain not only the “light” rare- earth neodymium, but also the “heavy” dysprosium and terbium materials, which are particularly scarce. Hitachi says its ferrite magnets offer the best magnetic properties for ferrites and can be used to produce motors with similar outputs to those using neodymium magnets. www.hitachi-metals.co.jp/e p A German firm i.safe Mobile claims to have developed the world’s first explosion- proof 5G smartphone for industrial use. The IS540.1 smartphone is the first Atex and IECEx Zone 1/21 approved smartphone to offer widely supported 5G frequency bands and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. It uses a Qualcomm chipset which also provides advanced camera quality and multimedia capabilities. The chipset has powerful AI and computing capabilities that can process demanding applications without affecting power efficiency. The Android phone has a 48-megapixel main camera and a 6-inch display. An amplified loudspeaker provides clear communication in noisy industrial environments. www.isafe-mobile.com TECHNOLOGY BRIEFS Digital system promises machine installation time savings of up to 70% Once a connector has been scanned, an LED indicates which port it should be plugged into. Circuit diagrams and 3D models are shown on a tablet touch display.