Sercos International, supplier of the Sercos automation bus, recorded nearly twice as many contacts during SPS IPC Drives Italia compared to last year. Sercos showed new products like the Sercos III SoftMaster demo, additional innovative technologies and updates from various areas. 

A highlight was the Tic-Tac-Toe demo from Schneider Electric which consists of a fully stainless-steel PacDrive P4-robot and an MAXR gantry robot. Both are part of Schneider Electric’s line of robotics products. The three-axis P4 delta robot sets the gaming pieces while the three-axis portal moves the board with its additional rotary axis. To perform this task, the P4 robot has to synchronize four mechanically coupled axes (three linear, one rotary). After each automatic move by the robot, the visitor sets his gaming piece using the human-machine interface. This allows the visitor to play an active role in the game and in the robot’s actions. Visitors could test their abilities against the robotic solution via a Magelis handheld touch panel that served as the operational interface. 

All robot axes are driven by Lexium motors, controlled by PacDrive 3 servo drives from the Lexium 62 multi-axis servo solution. The entire demo machine is controlled by a PacDrive LMC 600 controller, which communicates with the servo drives via the Sercos automation bus. Another highlight was the Sercos III SoftMaster demo, which was developed in cooperation with Bosch Rexroth, ISG Industrielle Steuerungstechnik and Tenasys. 

The SoftMaster demo showed how the highest speed and hard real-time can be achieved using a standard Ethernet controller. High performance and the highest determinism can be achieved due to a controller which supports queues and scheduling, for example the Intel i210. Ring topologies and redundancies are also reliably supported and functional limitations are no longer valid. Sercos cycle times up to 125 µs are possible. Apart from live demos, there were also a number of new products from various categories such as: drives, safety, network components and more.  

The conceptual approach that simplifies the integration of machinery in manufacturing completed the Sercos exhibition presence. True to the motto "Fewer cables, less complexity, easier machine integration," Sercos International developed this approach in collaboration with ODVA and the OPC Foundation. A uniform network infrastructure where Sercos telegrams, CIP messages and TCP/IP telegrams run via a single cable allows mechanical engineers and users to reduce the costs and complexity involved in machine integration. At the same time, they are able to keep using their preferred product suppliers and automation devices.