Connect logically with ‘Innovation in Automation Tour’

By Control Engineering Staff August 3, 2006

Germantown , WI —Control system integration is like assembling a puzzle. The pieces need to match electrically, functionally, safely, and within budget. “The Innovation in Automation Tour” is a mobile marketing vehicle that Wago Corp. is sending on a 16-state tour that runs through December 2006 in an effort to help integrators fit these pieces together.

The truck’s interior covers Wago’s two product divisions, Electrical Interconnect (which includes terminal blocks and connectors) and “Electronicc” (with the double “c” referring to the company’s Cage Clamp product). Electronicc division products include relays, power supplies, signal conditioning, interface modules, surge suppression, and the Wago-I/O-System).

Within the vehicle, a curved wall highlights the company’s innovations and its global locations. A model and panel shows benefits of Cage Clamp, the spring pressure wiring technology Wago invented more than 20 years ago.

Some Wago 12,000 part numbers are said to be represented in a mobile marketing technology innovation truck rolling through 16 U.S. states, August-December 2006.

Electrical Interconnect products include printed circuit board connectors and Winsta, a light duty industrial and commercial connector technology that provides a means of applying ‘plug and play’ principles to power distribution applications. Chassis-mounted terminal block, Wall-Nuts, and Lever-Nuts products improve wiring efficiency. DIN-rail-mounted terminal blocks, the original 280 Series, covers “commoning,” application-specific terminal blocks for sensor wiring, test and measurement circuit wiring, circuit protection (via fuse blocks, pluggable circuit breakers, and diodes), and space-saving designs with pluggable wiring and multi-level terminal blocks (which reduce DIN-rail length up to 66%). Also featured is the Cage Clamp S, featured in the Topjob S series of DIN-rail-mount terminal blocks.

The back wall displays software. Visitors will see sample catalog views, sample drawings, and print marking tags for circuit identification on a new thermal transfer printer. Another software display shows features of the IEC 61131 programming tool for the Wago-I/O-System as well as I/O Check software for commissioning, diagnostics, and troubleshooting I/O nodes.

The final wall, on the left upon walking in, covers the Electronicc product division, with the Wago-I/O-System, IP67 I/O, IP20 I/O, and Industrial PC (IPC). IP67 panel has passive and fieldbus-enabled “enclosure-less” initiatives. IP20 panel has Wago’s “industry changing approach to I/O and programmable controllers” (said to be the first fieldbus-independent, fine granularity, bit modular I/O system). Over 16 fieldbus communication protocols are featured, with a review of more than 200 I/O modules for digital, analog, and special-function signal processing. A panel explains the IPC hybrid PLC/PC controller product. A touchscreen industrial monitor displays the visualization stored on the IPC. The final display reviews power supplies, relays, signal conditioning, interface modules, as well as custom services.

Each product panel has an additional four product boards beneath them for hands-on product trials.

The teaching vehicle’s schedule includes the following stops:

Aug. 1, Milwaukee, WI;

Aug. 7, Northern WI;

Aug. 14, Minnesota;

Aug. 21, Iowa;

Aug. 28, Illinois;

Sept. 4, Western, MI;

Sept. 11, Eastern, MI;

Sept. 18, Indiana;

Sept. 25, Southwest OH;

Oct. 2, Northern OH;

Oct. 9, Western PA;

Oct. 16, Upstate NY;

Oct. 23, New Hampshire;

Oct. 30, Massachusetts;

Nov. 6, New York and New Jersey;

Nov. 13, Eastern PA;

Nov. 27, North Carolina;

Dec. 4, South Carolina and Georgia; and

Dec. 11, Florida.

For more information about this Wago U.S. tour, visit

https://www.wago.us/InnovationTour.htm

—Edited by Mark T. Hoske , Control Engineering editor in chief