POWERLINK included in EUROMAP specification

 

EUROMAP, the European association of plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers, has included POWERLINK in the EUROMAP 75 specification, which recommends protocols for data communication with peripheral equipment. It consists of three parts: EUROMAP 75-1 describes profiles for measuring devices, EUROMAP 75-2 covers physical interfaces and connection technology, and EUROMAP 75-3 focuses on the implementation of real-time Ethernet systems, listing POWERLINK and two more protocols. Product quality in injection molding largely depends on the reaction times of both measuring chain and machine controller. A precise adjustment of the holding pressure, for instance, which ensures an even distribution of the melt throughout the die, requires pressure and temperature data to be processed quickly. Even simple switching operations require maximum reaction times of 0.5 milliseconds. Providing communication cycles of few hundred microseconds, POWERLINK is particularly well-suited for a zero-delay infrastructure for such control circuits. Enabling cross-traffic, the real-time protocol also allows for a highly precise synchronization of several axes. “The inclusion of POWERLINK in the EUROMAP specification underlines the protocol’s leading position among hard real-time protocols and its universal suitability for all industries”, says Anton Meindl, CEO of the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group. The EUROMAP specifications can be downloaded at www.euromap.org.

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