| IP67 remote I/O: Control cabinet solutions |
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While fieldbus technology is slowly finding more and more advocates in the process industry, bus structures have been established for a long time in the manufacturing automation field. Whether it is the remote IO in the control cabinet with IP20... |
Degree of protection, or directly on the field or on the machine with IP67 degree of protection it is often a question of personal preference for the corresponding application. Turck customers can always find the right product range for every case and each application – from Remote I/O excom® used in the process industry to the BL20 control panel solution to BL67 for harsh industrial environments.
It is not simply enough to transform existing control cabinet solutions into a solution in an installation housing for direct mounting on the machine, in order to provide a high-performance I/O system for use in the field.
This may reduce the cable lengths to the sensors but does not offer any particular advantages. It is still necessary to lead out the sensor cables, to put them through the cable glands and then to connect them to the IP20 bus terminals. And it is not always possible to avoid wiring problems which also additionally affects the very precious commissioning times. If the fieldbus nodes then have to be extended by a few signals, chaos may ensue. Further cable glands must be installed in the installation housing and in the worst case scenario no more space will be available in the housing.
Now at the very latest well-developed IP67 fieldbus devices come into play. It is only then possible to comprehensively implement the distributed automation technology concept with high-performance and flexible solutions constructed for IP67 application. Turck has developed a modular system of this type with the BL67 whose fields of application can be extended continuously with new modules.
Modular IO system
The BL67 system consists of the gateway and the extension modules. The gateways are used for communication with the fieldbus and are available for Profibus-DP, DeviceNet, CANopen and Ethernet. Up to 32 expansion modules can be added to the right of the gateway, without the requirement for a module rack or a mounting panel...
The author
Markus Ingenerf
is product specialist for BL67
within the product marketing team of
Hans Turck GmbH, Mülheim.
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