A servo system consists of four main components that must be well coordinated to achieve the desired movement and dynamics. These components are the mechanical axes, the gear unit, the servo motor and the servo drive that controls the motor.
All these components influence each other, which can be a challenge in the dimensioning of a system and the selection of the components. Engineering therefore requires an iterative process in which the effects of each adjustment must be calculated in order to ultimately arrive at a system with the desired dynamics.
To help with this, Festo has developed an online tool that allows users to specify in a simple and intuitive way the specifications that a servo system must meet for a particular application. Based on this, the Electric Motion Sizing tool proposes a series of combinations with which the system can be built. The user can then use filters to specify additional selection criteria in order to ultimately arrive at the most suitable solution.
The tool not only guarantees correct dimensioning of the system, but also generates a Bill of Material, an extensive report with the results of the calculation and a parameter file that can later be used in the implementation.
The Bill of Material can also include all the brackets and other mechanical components needed to build a system, which brings us to mechanical connectivity. Festo makes it possible to design a complete drive system that can include several axes, including all the necessary components for assembly. In this way, a lot of time and costs can be saved.
The same applies to electrical connectivity where the one cable technology offers the possibility to combine the power supply and data communication in a single cable.
For the communication between the servo drives and the machine control – and this brings us finally to the intelligent connectivity – Fieldbus systems can be used where the CMMT-AS servo drives are available for ProfiNet, EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP and ModbusTCP.
An advantage of Festo's approach is that this choice of drives allows a drive system to be easily adapted to specific presets that customers may have for a particular PLC environment and the associated network technology. And it becomes even easier because with the launch of the multiprotocol drive there is now also a device that can be adapted to the different fieldbus protocols via a hardware switch or in the software settings. It is even possible to let the drive itself detect which network protocol is used by the parent PLC.
The final piece in intelligent connectivity is the software used for configuring and programming servo drives. Festo Automation Suite makes it possible to make a drive system ready for use in a few minutes. The fastest way to do that is to read the parameter file that was created by the Electric Motion Sizing tool when designing the system. At that time, links to the manuals are also created for all components and there is the possibility to perform all firmware updates of the components from the Suite. Furthermore, if one wants to apply logic in the drive itself, the software offers the possibility to program the drives in a CODESYS environment.
Switching to servo systems is often experienced by machine builders who have little or no experience with them as a complex step that involves a lot of risks and will require a lot of extra time. What this story about connectivity shows is that this doesn't have to be the case at all.
The Electric Motion Sizing tool guides the user through the selection of the components, guaranteeing that the system is correctly dimensioned in function of the desired specifications. The steps taken by Festo in the field of mechanical, electrical and intelligent connectivity also ensure that the system can be quickly and easily integrated into a PLC and network environment. The performance of servo systems has therefore become very accessible.
In addition, Festo offers a comprehensive service to guide users in the implementation of servo systems. The Festo Service channel service2see on YouTube contains a series of videos explaining step by step how to use the Electric Motion Sizing tool and the Automation Suite in the selection and integration of a system. In addition, Festo offers so-called Application notes in which very concrete answers are given to specific challenges, tailored to a specific PLC environment or, for example, a concrete safety category. A third service concerns online or on-site application engineering in which Festo's specialists can be called upon for the integration of a system or for solving specific problems.
If you want to experience the possibilities of servo systems in practice before getting started yourself, you are welcome to visit Festo eXperience Centres throughout the Europe: Delft (Netherlands), Bry-sur-Marne (France), Warsaw (Poland), Vienna (Austria), Lupfig (Switzerland) and in various locations in Germany. There, connectivity of Festo products with various PLCs through different networks can be experimented to test certain applications in real-world environments.