The packaging industry requires fast, precise motion control—and automation company B&R is rising to the challenge with its newest ACOPOSmulti multi-axis servo drive.
The latest iteration of the servo drive is faster than ever, improving cycle times for current, speed and position control from 100ms, 200ms and 400ms, respectively, to 50µs for all three loops. That opens up new possibilities for virtual sensor technology, according to a company press release.
“…[T]he faster the feedback (the cycle time), the more accurate the response, making it more reliable to depend on virtual as opposed to physical sensors,” John Kowal, director, business development for B&R Automation, explains.
Incorporation of virtual sensor technology can allow users to implement model-based control with autotuning, as well as a repetitive control function for predictive lag error compensation, according to B&R.
Thanks to a virtual motor position encoder, which uses software to emulate the function of an encoder to generate position commands, there’s no need for an encoder, encoder cable and evaluation unit in the servo drive. Availability is also increased.
Asked how the new speed compares with other servo drives on the market, Kowal demurs. “I’m not big on ‘specsmanship’ because the marketplace doesn’t stand still,” he says. “It's just good to know that we keep pushing the performance envelope.”
Jamie Hartford is content director, Advanced Manufacturing Group, for Packaging Digest’s parent company, Informa Markets, a business unit of Informa LLC.
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