TECHNOLOGY n 15 www.drivesncontrols.com January 2025 LEUZE HAS ANNOUNCED a lighting technology that makes it quicker to align and commission photoelectric sensors. Setting up such sensors can be timeconsuming. The new technology uses LEDs that emit their maximum light power from a tiny area, generating a light spot that maintains its size, shape and homogeneity over the sensor’s entire working range. As well as making alignment much quicker and easier, the Power PinPoint LED technology is also said to increase process reliability through precise detection. Sensors with the new technology generate a small, round light spot with sharply defined contours. This allows precise detection of the starts and ends of objects, with a pinpoint response during object tracking. Another claimed advantage is that retroreflective sensors with the new LEDs have higher function reserves for applications with large distances or small reflectors. Several through-beam photoelectric sensors can be used in parallel with higher detection reliability, because their compact light beams reduce diffusion. The LEDs also reduce unwanted reflections. The new light source is available initially for Leuze’s new 33C and 35C sensors, as well as its 25C, 3C and 5B diffuse sensors. The 33C and 35C series include diffuse, retro-reflective and through-beam photoelectric sensors in smooth stainlesssteel housings. www.leuze.com/en-uk FESTO HAS ANNOUNCED a new automation platform based on the open PLCnext technology developed by Phoenix Contact. The AX Controls platform combines software modules – including motion, visualisation, high-level languages and commissioning software – with a scalable hardware platform, including Festo’s first edge controller. The platform includes Festo AX OS (the operating system), Festo AX Motion control software, Festo AX Machine Visualization software, and the CEPE edge controller. It offers multiprotocol industrial Ethernet connections to higher-level PLCs, and an EtherCat master that can be used to combine servodrive and stepper motor technologies, as well as standard and servo-pneumatics. Applications for the platform will range from classic motion controls, to a variety of industrial, IoT and edge tasks. The AX OS is based on Phoenix Contact’s PLCnext open ecosystem for industrial automation, which supports real-time applications, the use of modern programming languages, and cloud connections. The containerised runtime environment enables an open, modular software architecture and the integration of AI-based software. Cybersecurity is built in. Festo and Phoenix Contact say they have a shared goal of meeting the needs arising from the convergence of IT and OT through open automation systems. Other adopters of PLCnext include Yaskawa and Ixon. In future, Festo customers will be able to buy software from the PLCnext Store. Festo’s AX Controls allows users to develop individual applications and to integrate them with their existing systems. The use of opensource software and apps is said to improve the efficiency of the development process. Festo’s CEPE edge device is based on AX OS and can execute software modules at runtime. It supports communications including EtherCat and Festo’s AP master, and can integrate with the company’s electrical and pneumatic portfolio, as well as connecting to other control architectures. Various software applications can be integrated and executed on the edge device in parallel. Cyclically-executed real-time applications and non-real-time applications can run together. The data is available to the applications and can be parameterised by the user. Another element of the AX platform is Festo’s AX Industrial Apps which are said to be easy to use without needing any AI knowledge. They also save time by giving operators a quick overview of data via intuitive dashboards and reports. Two of these apps are already available, and two others will follow soon. The AX Data Access app creates MQTT data access to Festo components, while AX Motion Insights Pneumatic detects faults in pneumatic drives. AX Motion Insights Electric will soon be added to detect faults in electric drives. The fourth, AX Energy Insights, will report deviations in energy consumption. The apps can connect to Festo’s AX Smartenance software for digital maintenance management, allowing parts to be repaired or replaced as part of planned maintenance, thus avoiding unplanned downtime. Smartenance is said to make maintenance and servicing more efficient and to cut costs. Powerful new functions have been added recently to Smartenance, including an interface that synchronises machines and fault management from SAP systems. It can assign spare parts to machines and incidents, with information available on site and via mobile devices. As well as finding parts quickly, the app also provides associated documents. Manual documentation and time-consuming searches are no longer needed. At the recent SPS show in Germany, Festo collaborated with a German software developer, voraus robotic, to demonstrate the AX platform being used to program, simulate, test and deploy gantry robots. www.plcnext-community.net https://vorausrobotik.com Festo’s open automation platform is based on PLCnext Festo’s AX platform includes the company’s first edge controller Pinpoint LEDs enhance photoelectric sensor set-up and reliability
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