Page 33 - Industrial Technology January 2020

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

A ROBOT ‘HANDSHAKE’

Author Mark Harries is specialist sales
engineer for robotic applications at Sick

down a moulded part for it to be picked by the next
process.
By communicating over CIP Safety, diagnostic
information can be retrieved from connected devices via
an HMI. So, for example, if there are Sick safety laser
scanners integrated into the system, they can deliver
alerts when screens need cleaning, as well as enabling
operators to interrogate a history of when warning fields
have been interrupted.
In future it is conceivable that the EUROMAP 73
standard will be upgraded to allow communication via CIP
Safety, thus negating the need for hard wired connections.
At this point, machines using the Sick/Fanuc solution will
already be future-proofed and ready for the development.
“By collaborating with Sick, we have provided a solution
“Of course, it is possible to hardwire connections achieved with a safe robot ‘handshake’ over EtherNet/IP. for our customers that avoids the need to add significant
between the machine, the robot, and to the robot The solution immediately presents a number of additional extra hardware to a machine, or extra cabling, while
controller which can often be located some distance from benefits to Fanuc’s customers, both end-users as well as taking out a great deal of time and complexity for our
the machine. However, this is complex for our integrators system integrators. There are significantly less cabling integrators,“ says Pointer.
and end-users to achieve, as well as being extremely costs, with much more simple programming and set-up. While Fanuc can apply the solution to new
costly in terms of the cabling required. To solve the The solution is relatively simple to retrofit, so customers ROBOSHOT machines for customers, its integrator
problem you need a safety controller, so we approached can introduce robot tending to existing machines and partners have the basis for a ready-made package with all
Sick to see if they could help.” dispense with manual processes. the building blocks necessary, including for example the
The resulting development achieved a simple I/O safety controller, guarding and interlock devices and push
‘handshake’ between the robot and the machine by using Connecting production processes button controls.
Sick’s Flexi-Soft safety controller with the addition of the By integrating via the Sick Flexi-Soft controller over EFI- The injection moulding standards and robot controls
Sick Safe EFI-PRO gateway solution for standard PRO, further robot controllers can be easily connected may be specific to this application, but this case study
industrial EtherNet-based safety network integration over then programmed to work together safely. A safety logic demonstrates how, whatever the industry, companies like
CIP Safety. The solution was groundbreaking in bridging can be established that avoids unnecessary stops that Sick and Fanuc will increasingly work together to bridge
a gap in connectivity, as well as providing a proven, might otherwise compromise production efficiency. Now, the gap and allow machines, robots and other devices to
extremely simple system that provides future-proof customers have an opportunity to connect production work seamlessly together in an open standard
security as both standards and connected devices align processes together. One robot could, for example, place environment over EtherNet/IP.
with CIP Safety over EtherNet/IP in future.
Pointer continues: “Although the EUROMAP standards
still require hardwired safety, Fanuc robots support
EtherNet/IP over the CIP protocol. We were able to mount
a standard junction box on the ROBOSHOT machine for
the Sick Flexi-Soft controller, so that the multi-core
connections stay local to the machine. Then, all that was
needed for the long run between the robot and the
controller was the EtherNet line, together with a two core
24V cable.
“A key part of the solution was to use a mix of safety
and standard (non-safety rated) input/output cards
available in the Sick range, so we could wire everything
back to one place in the junction box, with safety and
normal I/O communications down the same EtherNet
cable. Additionally, we were able to integrate a door
interlock with a separate push-button stack on the side of
the machine, so we can specify start, stop and reset, all
conveniently positioned for the operator on the side of the
machine.”
As a result of the development work between Sick and
Fanuc, an elegant and very simple solution has been
MORE INFORMATION: www.sick.co.uk • info@sick.co.uk • Tel: 01727 831121

January 2020 •INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY 33