32 n FOOD AND BEVERAGE March 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com High-speed networking is a slice above the rest The Spanish company KFT Food Machinery develops and manufactures high-performance meat-slicing equipment used in some of the food industry’s most demanding production environments. Since it was established in 2014, KFT’s expertise has evolved and it now specialises in the sausage sector, providing machinery for sausage production and other food items that need to be stuffed into plastic casings. From sausage peelers to co-extrusion systems, KFT’s machinery is designed to be robust and easy to use. The company’s customers work in high-throughput environments where equipment needs to perform consistently for long shifts and frequent changeovers. KFT’s slicing machines are among the most technically advanced products in its portfolio. They use ten or more independently-controlled servo axes and can perform up to 14 precision cuts every second. Maintaining this level of precision and speed requires an advanced motion control architecture with fast, deterministic communication between components. To meet this challenge, KFT uses the highspeed CC-Link IE TSN networking technology in its slicers. This allows multiple servo axes to be synchronised in real time, while keeping the system architecture clean and maintainable. KFT’s engineers noted a clear improvement in performance, with the consistent, high-speed communication supporting stable, high-precision cutting – even at maximum speed. This has improved both productivity and reliability, while reducing the risk of unplanned downtime or inconsistent results. The network’s bandwidth and flexibility also allowed KFT to simplify its control system design, and the team was able to standardise its communications structure across motion control, I/O and other peripherals, including pneumatic and safety systems. This has reduced wiring and integration complexity, speeding up commissioning faster and making the machines easier to support. “It allows us to simplify the communication structure, reducing complexity and set-up time,” explains KFT CEO, Marti Clos. “We now have a future-proof foundation that supports machine scaling and expansion into new areas, like pneumatic and safety controls.” KFT has also been able to standardise key elements of its motion programming, reusing code and parameters between machines to support product consistency and reduce development cycles. With CC-Link IE TSN now established as part of its slicer architecture, KFT plans to expand its use of the technology in future designs. In addition to further integration of safety and pneumatic devices, the team sees long-term benefits in adopting a consistent, open communications backbone for all of its motion-driven systems. “The integration of a servo and motion control system supported by CC-Link IE TSN has been the definitive solution to our requirements,” says Clos. “Thanks to its gigabit bandwidth, and the converged network architecture enabled by TSN (TimeSensitive Networking), this protocol provides high transmission speed, deterministic synchronisation across all axes, and the ability to carry both real-time control and diagnostic data on the same network.” “CC-Link IE TSN offers the performance, robustness, and flexibility we need,” he adds. “It’s helped us push our machine capabilities forward, and it’s easy to implement and expand.” “It’s fantastic to see companies like KFT pushing the boundaries of machine performance by adopting CC-Link IE TSN,” comments John Browett, general manager of the CC-Link Partner Association in Europe. “Seeing more and more machine-builders embracing the benefits of open, high-speed industrial networking confirms just how valuable this technology is for today’s – and tomorrow’s – automation challenges.” n A Spanish machine-builder that specialises in high-speed machinery for the meat industry, is using an open industrial Ethernet technology to support ultra-fast, multi-axis motion control for its slicing machines. KFT's slicing machines can perform up to 14 precision cuts per second By adopting the high-speed CC-Link IE TSN network, KFT has reduced wiring and integration complexity, speeding up commissioning and simplifying support.
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