Eight-axis controller drives down costs

At next month`s Hannover Fair, Siemens will be unveiling a controller which, it claims, will make it economical to automate even small-scale motion control applications. The Simatic CPU 315T combines the performance of a standard Simatic S7-300 CPU with PLCopen motion control functions, to provide fast, deterministic control of up to eight axes.

The CPU can co-ordinate up to 32 objects, which can be any combination of up to eight axes, 16 cams, 16 toggles, eight probes or eight external sensors. It is configured using the S7-Technology Step-7 option package, a new version of which, incorporating many ready-to-use industrial functions, will be shown at Hannover.

Other items making debuts on the Siemens stand at Hannover include:

• a memory card for S7-400 controllers which will allow them to communicate via Ethernet three times faster than before;

• a more efficient real-time "soft" PLC that reduces the load on a PC`s CPU by around five-sixths, allowing PCs to perform more complex tasks; and

• "the world`s first" distributed I/O system with IP65/67 protection and Industrial Ethernet communication using the Profisafe profile.