“Industrial fieldbus systems have replaced conventional field wiring in all modern applications, simply because they offer decisive benefits: they save money and time, they are much easier to design, offer more flexible functionality through individual parameterisation and they also aid the rapid location and diagnosis of faults,” said the whitepaper’s author Heribert Einwag, product manager at Eaton. “With its intelligent wiring and communication technology, Eaton offers the same benefits for more simple devices, traditionally controlled via individual wiring within panels or even outside when they are installed in the periphery.”
The technological solution uses smart modules that attach to standard motor control components. These smart modules connect via a multi-conductor ribbon cable to a gateway module, which connects to a standard fieldbus on the PLC’s CPU. By incorporating power as well as data, virtually all of the control wiring from the PLC’s I/O modules to motor starters and control circuit devices can be eliminated.
With wiring cost reductions of up to 85% easily possible, the intelligent wiring and communication technology helps machine builders reduce engineering, design, assembly, and wiring time. It also simplifies control connections, extends diagnostic capabilities to the device level, and increases the reliability, consistency and flexibility of the control scheme. Moreover, because the number of cable ducts and I/O modules can be notably reduced, panel space savings of 40% can be achieved.
