SERCOS interoperability demo for servos coming to Pack Expo 2004

Pack Profile interoperability demonstration of SERCOS interface products from multiple vendors will be highlighted at Pack Expo 2004 (Nov. 7-11, in Chicago, IL)—to take place in OMAC Packaging Workgroup’s booth (C-67, in the concourse entrance to upper level McCormick Place North).

By Control Engineering Staff October 28, 2004

A Pack Profile interoperability demonstration of SERCOS interface products from multiple vendors will be highlighted at Pack Expo 2004 (Nov. 7-11, in Chicago, IL)—to take place in OMAC Packaging Workgroup’s booth (C-67, in the concourse entrance to upper level McCormick Place North). The demo will feature controllers from Automation Intelligence, Beckhoff, Bosch Rexroth, and Rockwell Automation—running each others’ servo drives and motors, plus a servo drive/motor from Danaher Motion. All controllers and drives conform to the SERCOS interface Pack Profile, a subset of the SERCOS interface functions defined for packaging machinery to improve multi-vendor interoperability of servo controls and drives.

Object of the demo is to show packaging machine builders and end-users the benefit of using international standards, such as SERCOS interface (IEC 61491) and PLCopen (IEC 61131-3), along with OMAC guidelines, for interoperability. SERCOS vendor organizations developed the Pack Profile in response to a request by the OMAC Packaging Machinery Working Group. The interoperability demo also will be shown at the SPS/IPC/Drives exhibition (Nov. 23-25) in Nuremberg, Germany.

SERCOS (SErial Realtime COmmunications System) is a digital IEC-standard interface for communication between digital drives and various controls. OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls) Users Group is an organization with multiple objectives, such as help companies work together to establish a repository of open architecture control requirements and experiences, and derive common solutions for open architecture control technologies, among others.

Click here for a SERCOS Pack Profile specification, plus a white paper on the subject .

For more information on the OMAC Packaging Workgroup, click here .

For more about IEC 61131-3 programming standard, click here .

—Frank J. Bartos, executive editor, Control Engineering, fbartos@reedbusiness.com