Servo drive adds Ethernet

14 January 2008

ARIES is the prominent drive of Parker EMD, who have now enhanced their family of digital brushless
servo drives with the addition of Ethernet PowerLink communications. This powerful drive is presented by Micromech, their technology partner.

The ARIES drive platform utilises Ethernet PowerLink technology to increase system performance
while decreasing overall system costs and installation time. Engineers' system design and machine
installation times are greatly reduced through the use of inexpensive and readily available Ethernet
cabling for the interface between the servo drive and the motion controller. This useful configuration
removes the need for traditional and expensive methods to produce ±10V analogue control and feedback cables. The elimination of such cables, which are often the source of problems during the commissioning process, has the added benefit of increasing the reliability and noise immunity of the whole control system.

The drive operates in interpolated position mode, receiving co-ordinated position set-point commands
over the Ethernet PowerLink network from a master motion controller. When using with the new
ACR9030/9040 family of motion controllers, the ARIES drives offer the added benefits of auto-tuning,
drive set-up and full real-time diagnostics, all via the Ethernet PowerLink network using the ACR-View
front-end software.

Available with continuous power ratings of 400W, 750W and 1.3kW, these drives operate direct online
from a 120-240VAC single-phase supply and also feature a logic keep-alive facility. Both rotary and
linear brushless servo motor technologies are supported, as are both standard quadrature- and
EnDat-encoder feedback systems.

Ethernet PowerLink is a high-speed digital motion-bus network which enables the easy interconnection
of PLCs, motion controllers, drives and I/O products from a variety of automation vendors. By utilising
standard, well proven industrial Ethernet network hardware, the Ethernet PowerLink combines a mix of
polling and time-slicing mechanisms to provide a real-time, deterministic communications channel via a
reliable, low cost and easy-to-install hardware platform.

Importantly for designers, the Ethernet PowerLink is an open standard, free from patent and intellectual
property ownership issues, unlike other proprietary motion-bus options. Parker Hannifin is just one of a
number of manufacturers who are members of the ‘Ethernet PowerLink Standardisation Group’. This
multi-vendor support for the Ethernet PowerLink standard ensures that a wide range of automation products are available for integration into Ethernet PowerLink-based automation systems.