Modern machines and systems in factory and process automation now have a better performance capability since recent years and decades. These machines have not only become faster, smaller and more reliable but also at the same time become safer and more flexible. Enormous improvements have been made for economic forces to lead to high demands on availability of the equipment. Recent innovations in the automation technologies have triggered this progress and made possible to no small degree by involving control technology to field bus or the sensor/actuator level. Only the area where progress has not been yet achieved is interface connecting the sensors/actuators to the automation systems. The latest io-link interface from balluff india eliminates the bottleneck on sensor/actuator level and makes binary point-to-point connection dialog-capable. This interface is able to replace the complex interfaces with its 3-wire cable that allow consistent parameterisation and diagnostic concepts in the process level. Io-link interface for automation can transmit the actual process signal along with diagnostic and parameter data over a simple standard cable at 4.8 or 38.4 k baud data rate or 230 k baud option. Since io-link needs only an unshielded 3-wire standard connection cable, even for multi-channel sensors and when transmitting digitized analog values, thus the need of expensive cabling is eliminated. Io-link interface provides detailed documents and detailed picture of the status of the actuators and sensors. The balluff io-link interface is available with salient features like availability of the system increases with improved diagnostic and maintenance functions; eliminate time-consuming set-up work on the process level; the required parameters are stored centrally and loaded as needed; simplifies handling, reduces downtimes along with the total cost of ownership.
