HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Bosch Rexroth Electric
Drives and Controls, formerly named Indramat, expanded its product line and now
offers a system solution for automated press controls called Synax version 10.
Bosch Rexroth has provided shaftless drives for
the newspaper industry since 1994 and works with press manufactures and control
suppliers such as KBA, Goss, MAN Roland, WIFAG, Honeywell and EAE.
System components for shaftless drive
technology.
Photo courtesy of Bosch Rexroth
The company’s new Synax version 10 provides
shaftless drive technology, programmable logic control and industrial terminals
for operator control on a common platform.
“Shaftless drive technology is the control of
all the rotary motion on the machine. So anything that moves is controlled by
the drive. What we are doing is migrating a proven technology that we developed
for the machine tool industry and now offering that technology to the printing
industry,” stated Jim Hulman, director of marketing and sales for Bosch
Rexroth.
“The PLC and the shaftless drive technology do
the majority of all processing and control on the press control systems. It is
natural to integrate these technologies into one common platform.
“This technology is typically used to integrate
normal print unit logic for controlling dampeners, register and inking systems.
Synax version 10 uses a single piece of hardware designed to minimize
troubleshooting and tightly integrate any interaction between motion and logic.
In the past, these two components have been connected by communication cables or
discrete wiring.”
The PLC monitors the system data and machine
performance and can be programmed to dial pagers, cell phones, or send e-mails
on fault conditions. These tools can be used to alert your maintenance or
production personnel of potential issue.
Synax version 10 provides remote access for
troubleshooting or data collection via ethernet.
Key
press control components
Today’s newspaper press control systems consist of three major
electrical components: operator consoles, shaftless drive technology and
programmable logic controller. The function of each technology follows.
Keyboard: The console used by the
operator to enter adjustment into the press control system.
Shaftless drives: The control of
all rotary motion on the printing press. This includes reelstands, print
units, draw rollers, and folders. All basic mechanical motion, related
to the set-up and printing operation is now controlled with servo
motion.
PLC: The PLC coordinates press
control system communication and monitors pushbuttons, sensors and
switches. It is the PLC that does calculations and provides the logic to
assist the operator with selection of the correct web leads.
Previous generations of press control
systems used line-shafted DC drives in place of shaftless drive
technology. The DC drives were controlled directly from the PLC within
the press control system.
Shaftless drive technology uses a
separate motion control processor to coordinate the independent drives,
yielding precise synchronization.
A separate motion control processor was
required to coordinate the independent drives. The PLC was unable to
provide this function because it was designed to monitor inputs from
sensors and switches and turn on other devices at a relatively slow
speed. |
