Infineon aims to maintain industrial automation legacy at SPS

Posted By : Anna Flockett
Infineon aims to maintain industrial automation legacy at SPS

 

Gearing up for another year at SPS Drives, Infineon has a long-standing track record to live up to in industrial automation, a big topic at this year’s event. Industrial automation innovations continue to deliver technologies that are needed to power the smart factories of today and tomorrow.

Infineon believe in sensing and motor control capabilities with in-depth power efficiency and security know-how to ensure that customers are empowered to unleash full potential in automation, and now particularly are ready for the digital transformation in the IoT.

Advanced Sensing Capabilities
There’s no questioning that sensors are everywhere and involved with everything, and sensors have the important role of collecting the information that is needed to enable automation in the IoT. Even in the most demanding networked production environments, the highly accurate speed, position, angle and pressure measurement sensors from Infineon can be relied upon to deliver superior motor control coupled with the most compact drive footprints.

Industrial Robots – a new level of collaboration
With a broad portfolio of sensors, that will be on show at SPS, the technology produced from Infineon can aid industrial robots and emerging collaborative robot designs into the future of manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

Robots have for a long time been slaves of the factory production line, but now a time when Industry 4.0 is on the horizon, hand-in-hand with smart factories, the latest generation of industrial robots are revolutionising the more traditional process.

One positive aspect for manufacturers worldwide is the increased positivity and enhancement cost optimisation. In some cases the new iteration can even work with humans in factories as a collaborative solution, which are also referred to as cobots, in which they assist with manufacturing processes and boost output quality thanks to the accurate work they execute.

Contrastingly to the more classical industrial robot, cobots work outside the limitation of a safety cells and in direct interaction with real people. As they perform these accident-prone tasks they aid in making plants a safer work place for humans.

To achieve all of this however, requires certain design features; for example collaborative robots need a higher number of axes to achieve complete freedom with movement. They are also subject to high safety requirements to ensure humans that are working nearby are out of harm’s way.

A successful industrial robot and cobot requires:

  • High power density to reduce the size of the control box
  • A high level of accuracy, integration and efficiency
  • Safety management solutions in line with current norms
  • Various topologies for axes, joints and motors
  • Security features that protect intellectual property from counterfeiting

Infineon stand by the belief and will be showing how customers can achieve all of this and more with traditional industrial robots and collaborative robot designs.

Using semiconductors, Infineon checks all the boxes for both traditional industrial robots and collaborative robots designs. Regardless of the robot’s size, number of axes and payload, Infineon’s product portfolio has a solution for nearly any industrial robot design. Upholding the highest safety standards is easily achievable with radar and sensor solutions. Additionally, the refined security solutions on offer from Infineon, help ensure customers are protected from unsecured firmware updates and counterfeit products.

Smart Motor Control
Infineon’s microcontrollers are another feature on show at SPS Drives, as they build more intelligence into IoT devices by collecting, coordinating, processing, analysing and communicating vast amounts of data in real time.

Delivering a range of motor control solutions Infineon aims to boost the performance of industrial automation applications, computing cascaded control tasks and measuring current, position and speed with ultimate precision.

Motor control for industrial automation
Just to name a few, common industrial automation applications include food, packaging, logistics systems, tool machines and robots. In order to achieve higher demands in terms of dynamic behaviour and precision, industrial automation relies heavily on industrial AC drives and servo drives. Using the Infineon XMC microcontroller at the centre of a top-caliber motor control system you can quickly compute cascaded control tasks and measure current, position and speed with ultimate precision. The heavy demand load occurs in real-time, which requires a highly capable system. 

Trusted security and device protection
Infineon will be highlighting the ability to meet the rising need for security in automated industrial environments at SPS Drives through its security solutions; which include being easy to implement, transparency and a fail-safe function.

The security capabilities that Infineon provide will protect not only connected systems and devices, but also intellectual property and even business models. Infineon will be showing uninterrupted operations with trusted security solutions at the event.

In increasingly networked industrial environments, smart factories promise huge resource efficiency gains individualised products and greater adaptability, however the automated communication between cyber-physical systems can also open up virtual doors to potential attackers.

The threat of down-time and operational disruptions as a result of manipulation is rising. Successful attackers can easily access intellectual property, dedicated process know-how and customer data. Strong application security measures are needed to protect against these rising threats.

Peace of mind is top of the list for Infineon, and therefore it provides technology that can be monitored whether the right people and machines are communicating with each other, which allows customers to work out if production systems are under manipulation – which maintains reliable options. 

Efficient power management
The power semiconductors on offer from Infineon are designed to deliver the ultra-high power efficiency levels in the power densities and form factors required for industrial IoT applications. Uninterruptible power supplies equipped with Infineon semiconductors can achieve best-in-class power conversion efficiency levels along with innovative power densities.

This is another feature of the event which can in the long term provide customers with lower costs and fewer passive components – regardless of topology.

You can find Infineon in Hall 1 at booth 240, at the SPS Drives which is taking place in Nuremberg from 28th-30th November 2017. In addition to this speaker Axel Hahn will be giving a talk focused on ‘sensors for robotics and Industry 4.0’ on 28th November from 11-11:45am in the Automation 4.0 Summit, Messezentrum NCC Ost, Room Seoul.

Marcelo Williams will also be giving a talk based around XMC EtherCAT on 29th Novemeber from 9:40-10am, taking place in the Messeforum ZVEI, Hall 3A-499.

Finally, ‘How to Control Electric Drive Inverters with minimum interface size’ will be hosted by speaker Clemens Müller on the 30th November from 9:20-9:40am, again in the Messeforum ZVEI, Hall 3A-499.

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