control and drive technology
DESCRIPTION
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ARADEXAutomation Drives Controls
CONTROL AND DRIVE TECHNOLOGY
FINISHING
PRINTING PRESSES
CONVERTING
FOR PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
Cam discKing pin
VECTODRIVE® drive systems andVECTONUM® Control:
Leading international manufacturers rely on ARADEX technology for their top products.
LICENCE TO PRINT
ARADEX successfully combines maximum synchronisation quality with dynamics. The very best prerequisite for print-ing, converting and fi nishing.
In printing presses and fi nishing sys-tems with electronically synchronised axes the various requirements are partly diametrically opposed to one another. In printing processes and in rotary smooth running fi nishing procedures the process requires max-imum synchronisation quality even with high torque variations, e.g. „start-ing up“ of a fl exoprint block or due to the punching tools or similar tools. For intermittent movements synchro-nised to the web or the sheet, on the other hand, maximum dynamics while maintaining maximum preci-sion is required. Practical examples for this are vari-able format cutting with a „fl ying blade“ or the foil saving function in hot foil stamping machines.
VECTONUM® und VECTODRIVE®: setting standards for over 10 years for high performance controls and highly dynamic drives.
The integrated drive management VECTO-IDM® with its extremely short cycle and current response times as well as intelligent control algorithms ensures speed accuracies during printing and the exact position-ing of highly dynamic movements dur-ing intermittent processes. The performance of the individual drives ranges from 1 to 100 kW. The scalable performance of our VECTONET® means that the number of axes in an installation is practically unlimited.
Differential
VECTONUM®: directly usable PC performance for real time.
The VECTONUM® NT underlines our many years of experience in the development of controls with a PC operating system beginning with MS-DOS in 1990. From 1995 on the consequent further development was with Windows NT. We have been supplying the VECTO-NUM® NT with the operating system Windows NT since 1998. This control fulfi ls the requirements of the most demanding production machines.Our fundamental principles are hard real time, deterministic behaviour and maximum computing capacity in industrial conditions and this ensures the technological advantage also for your applications. Depending upon the application, the VECTONUM® NT attains cycle times of 100 µs to 1 ms and operates PLC and CNC combined with between 1 and 20 axes as software modules in just one industrial PC.
VECTOVISION®: Effi cient information exchange with the operator.
The more sophisticated the machine, the higher the demands on the com-munication with the operator. The integrated visualisation tool VECTOVISION® offers everything the operator needs. It goes without saying that fl ying lan-guage changeover, Unicode capabil-ity and picture and video presen-tation are all available as well as powerful diagnostic tools and a wide variety of functional elements for dis-playing process variables.
In use in industryin 50 countries hard real time on pure PC basis with ARADEX VECTONUM®
POWER FOR WEB AND SHEET
VECTODRIVE®: From 0 to 100 kW in 0.1 ms
Just as important as controls with the shortest possible cycle times are drives which have similar short reac-tion times. This is the weak point of many systems. The ARADEX special-ists achieved standard response times of 0.1 ms even with drives with large kW performance. This extremely dynamic, while at the same time sensitive, motor control is the solid foundation for maximum closed loop stiffness and smooth run-ning of the drives and thus also of your machine.
VECTONUM® DigiScope: 1000 simultaneous channels, 5000 points range, 0.5 ms resolution
The integrated VECTONUM® DigiScope functions in the same cycle as the real time system. It shows any number of variables from the internal PLC/CNC as well as all inputs and outputs and allows far reaching insight into the servo axis control. Time derivations of mea-sured variables are possible as are Fourier analyses. The data can be exported into MS-EXCEL for further processing.
VECTONUM® DigiScope: Controls and drive systems are only as good as the Diagnostic tools.
VECTODRIVE® drive systems and VECTONUM® PC control
The ARADEX application team suc-cessfully equipped the fi rst fl exoprint-ing units with an electronic shaft as early as 1994. Within just a few years the continuous further develop-ment included all technologies in and around printing, converting and fi n-ishing. This ensures the decisive ad-vance for us and our customers. Using control and drive systems from ARADEX you achieve state-of-the-art results for all types of printing presses with electronic individual drives. The drive management VECTO-IDM® has a function specially developed for the printing industry: Torque-Rip-ple-Control, this ensures excellent smooth running of the drives. The VECTO-IDM® function greatly reduc-es the stimulation of resonance fre-quencies caused by the machine lead-ing to a marked improvement in the printing quality. The rapid torque vari-ations resulting from the printing pro-cess are quickly cushioned and com-pensated.
Drive Management VECTO-IDM®:Torque-Ripple-Control means maximum speed accuracies when printing sophisticated materials
PRINTING PRESSES
mance, in order to enable the exactly synchronous operation of even large installations. Depending upon the requirements just one VECTONUM® control can completely control and administer 8 to 20 axes. The VECTONET® then crosslinks several VECTONUM® con-trols via Ethernet to one system so that even more than 100 axes can be exactly matched as a continuous system solution.
VECTONUM® GEAR: Synchronous and intermittent movements register accuracy for printing
As well as in machines with mid web central impression design, VECTO-NUM® controls and VECTODRIVE® drives are also successfully used in individual printing unit construction with web lengths that vary in size.The direct integration of the registra-tion mark control in the total drive strategy offers especial advantages for the printing process. In this manner interactions of the registering of an axis on the neighbouring axis can be correctly solved right at the beginning. The result is lower registration mark deviation and faster compensation.
VECTODRIVE® individual drives in-stead of a mechanical kingpin means low mechanical expenditure and more fl exible total solutions. Technol-ogy modules from ARADEX for exam-ple also systematically compensate mechanical faults. Together with our customers and exclusively for the in-dividual application involved, we de-velop special technology modules for special tasks. The ARADEX drive specialists devel-oped VECTONET®, a strategy for al-most infi nite scalable control perfor-
The motion processes in high-perfor-mance foil printing machines make very special demands on modern servo drive dynamics and accuracy. The foil saving function, important for economy and ecology, during hot foil stamping and the exact positioning of holograms on banknotes, bonds and packaging, requires very high ac-celeration on the foil and/or web and sheetThe required accelerations are quad-rate to the number of products man-ufactured per time unit. In this man-ner an increase in production of, for example, 60% results in intermit-tent movement acceleration values 2.5 times higher. The resulting values of 500 m/s2 in high-end machines are certainly not rare and must be achieved in combination with accura-cies of 1/10 mm.
Precision at 1200 stampings per minute:Gold stamping and holograms exactlyon the product
CONVERTING
The VECTODRIVE® motors pick up on the electronic possibilities of the VECTODRIVE® drive amplifi ers in me-chanical design and with integrated sensors and offer all the advantages of a turnkey solution even when inte-grated. ARADEX offers system solutions from one partner, ranging from registration mark sensors, extremely fast I/O mod-ules, high-performance controls with integrated soft-PLC up to drive ampli-fi ers and motors with maximum dy-namics. Of course ARADEX systems can also be combined with other commercial systems at the different levels. It is also possible to solve just a few very demanding subsystems with ARADEX technology and to retain the tried-and-tested total concept. Our appli-cations team will be pleased to offer you advice on this.
VECTO-IDM®:The most modern control structures and integrated drive managementmean nearly variation-free movement processes
The fast VECTONUM® control is just one of the necessary prerequisites for highly dynamic processes. In order to achieve typical cycle times of approx. 0.3 ms the whole process chain must be up to the job, whether it be the sensor, the control or the drive. Just as important as drives with the shortest possible response times is the µs-exact processing of registration mark signals on the web or the holo-gram foil and all this with forces not exactly calculable due to foil, web and the stamping process.
The integrated drive management VECTO-IDM® of the VECTONUM® works excellently with the fast drive amplifi ers of the VECTODRIVE® range with real current response times under 0.1.ms. The dynamic values achieved by the motors of the VDM range developed in co-operation with ARADEX special-ists prove that even modern commer-cial AC-servo motors have further de-velopment potential.
When converting and fi nishing print-ed products fl exible and quickly scal-able solutions are required. VECTODRIVE® drives and the VECTONUM® controls can be used for applications ranging from simple fi nishing units with only one synchro-nised axis up to complex installations with over 30 individual units. We offer hard and software modules for the most diverse fi nishing process-es. The speed ratio of drawing units can be adjusted via relation control on-the-fl y. Superimposed movement modulations are also possible as well as simple synchronous axes. Thus compensation of work toleranc-es due to machine design is achieved as well as synchronisation of intermit-tent movements to the web.
VECTONET® makes interlinking several controls easy: freely scalable performance for complex processes
FINISHING
The advantages of this system are all the more important for the complex processes in web processing. The web tension control in an instal-lation ensures defi ned environmental conditions for the fi nishing processes that can often be very demanding. However, the control of the web ten-sion between two processing stations also infl uences the web tension in the neighbouring station. The same is true of the register control in the longitudinal and lateral registration marks. Here, the central intelligence of the VECTONUM® enables compre-hensive solutions for all stations.
With VECTONUM® controls there are no limits to your fantasy: we have over 100 axes fi rmly under control.
VECTONET® puts an end to the dis-cussion about the advantages and dis-advantages of centrally or decentrally controlled drives. The VECTONUM® has the architecture of a central con-trol on the basis of a high-perfor-mance industrial PC. The networking of several VECTONUM® controls via VECTONET® leads to a scalability of the control performance almost at will for large installations without los-ing the central data transmission. In this manner the only real disadvan-tage of a centralised solution - the limited control performance is elimi-nated.
Profi bus-DP, Interbus-S, Ethernet, CAN: We don‘t mind what standardsour customers have
INTEGRATION IN EXISTING INSTALLATIONS
Flexibility and scalability are required for new elements in order to extend and integrate new elements in exist-ing installations so that the compo-nents already in use retain their func-tion. The end product must merge diverse operating and automation concepts to a homogenous unit. This argument is not just valid for in-line fi nishing but also for the organic integration of other additional aggre-gates in large installations.For this reason all new developments at ARADEX are undertaken with spe-
cial emphasis on the integration ca-pability. The VECTONUM®, for ex-ample, adjusts quickly to existing automation concepts via the conven-tional fi eld bus systems and thus en-ables optimum system continuity.
VECTOVISION® Overlay:Visualisation from ARADEX and your tried-and-tested visualisation
The printing press operator control is usually a tried-and-tested and com-prehensive product - the result of many hours of work in the R&D de-partment. We wanted to keep the proven prod-uct, add new functions and with as few new developments as possible for both sides. The solution is called VECTOVISION® Overlay. This concept has already proved itself in practice and runs both visualisa-tion systems (the existing and the new functions with VECTOVISION®) on the same PC. VECTOVISION® is partly or completely transparent and shows the display of the other visuali-sation running in the background.
The processes when setting up a fi n-ishing aggregate for a new product can be demanding and this in turn makes heavy demands on the opera-tion of the installation. Intuitive and continuous concepts from the printing press to the fi n-ishing of printing products are the elementary prerequisites for an effi -cient operation and a fault-free opera-tion worldwide. The visualisation tool VECTOVISION® offers optimal possi-bilities for an easy and safe machine operation. The requirement when connecting the fi nishing aggregates to the various printing presses available on the mar-ket is for an organic solution con-sisting of the existing printing press operating panel and the fi nishing op-erator control, which then has to be adapted.
Variable format cross-cutting machines
The „fl ying blade“ function can be used for variable format crosscutting machines as well as for other variable format processes such as punching, perforating, stamping etc. The excel-lent dynamics and precision of the VECTODRIVE® drives enable a large format range even at high speeds.
Stepless gears
The „synchronous axis“ function of the VECTONUM® replaces the me-chanical kingpin with an electronic one. The transmission of a driven axis can be selected steplessly in relation to the leading axis. Transmission and phase relation can be adjusted on-the-fl y during running.
TECHNOLOGY MODULES
VECTONUM® Software: Modularity is the highest principle.
The VECTONUM® offers a variety of available technology modules for the most diverse applications. The open design enables our customers to add their own modules according to their needs or have our development team add modules for them.
Core-PLC: Technology in µs cycle.
All the technology modules for the core functions run within one block cycle. Cycle and reaction times of 100 µs to 1ms depending upon the application are achieved, including the axis control and the I/O response. The time behaviour is deterministic and has a very low jitter. Extensive development and diagnos-tic tools show the need for comput-ing capacity for the individual mod-ules.
VECTONUM® Software: Tailor-made technology modules for the most diverse applications
Web tension control
The web tension is directly measured by a force-sensing roller or indirectly via the position of a compensating roller. The VECTONUM® controls the web tension by infl uencing the web transport, whereby interactions be-tween several stations can also be taken into account.
Registration marks / Register control
The VECTODRIVE® drives can direct-ly detect and evaluate location and width of the registration marks. The VECTONUM® then controls the longi-tudinal and lateral registers of webs and sheets. The sensor signals can be processed in less than 1µs and are reproducible.In order to make full use of this ARADEX also supplies the appropri-ate fast sensors.
VECTONUM® DigiScope and VECTOVISION® Controls: Aids monitoring of process variables such as registration mark precision and web tension and serves to optimise control loops.
ARADEXAutomation Drives Controls
CONTROL ANDDRIVE KNOW-HOW
Higher productivity
Better quality
Less use of resources
Better products
ARADEX AGZiegelwaldstr. 373547 Lorch Germany
Fon +49/(0)7172/9181- 0Fax +49/(0)7172/9181-91
Photos with kind permission of (in alphabetical order):Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG • Maschinenfabrik Ravenstein GmbH • Siemens AGSteuer GmbH • Windmöller & Hölscher GmbH • Zhuhai S.E.Z Chengcheng
Concept & Design: Palmer Advertising & Marketing , 69115 Heidelberg3D-graphics: M.O. Utz