Designing and building the equipment that can manipulate masonry products in a variety of models is the brainchild of Automacad Concrete (Québec, Canada) an original equipment manufacturer of concrete product machinery. Automacad designs and builds customized solutions for manufacturers of concrete products.
One of Automacad's flagship machines is called the Split-Impact® which is considered one of the fastest concrete splitters in the industry. One-hundred-percent pneumatic, the machine mounts in-line directly over an existing conveyor. As large slabs of dry-cast concrete move down the conveyor, the powerful Split-Impact machine cuts the concrete in one pass, producing ready-to-tumble products.
 Controlling the force of the machine is a skid of pneumatic heads that each contains a blade that is driven down into the concrete for precise cutting. Wiring the pneumatic cabling and tubing back to a control panel can be time consuming. On one Split-Impact machine, more than 300 wires can be connected from the skid to the main control panel which can lead to wire bundles that are cumbersome.
With the popularity of the Split-Impact machine growing, Louis Hébert, President/Owner of Automacad, and his team of engineers decided it was time to reduce the number of cables in the field and improve the networking technology on their machine. The company also wanted to reduce installation time and panel build complexity.
Automacad looked to ifm efector North America for their expertise in providing networking solutions for actuators and sensors. ifm offers the Actuator-Sensor interface (AS-i) bus system for networking I/O points and reducing wiring complexity.
 Automacad fixed the top of each pneumatic head with an ifm ClassicLine Airbox that controls the digital inputs and pneumatic outputs. The Airboxes are daisy-chained through all of the heads of the Split-Impact machine. One AS-i cable brings in all digital inputs and drives out all of the outputs. One pneumatic tube supplies the air to each Airbox.
A selling feature for Automacad is the compact, simple-to-mount housing. The low-profile Airbox has a smaller form factor than most and fits easily on top of the pneumatic head. A quick-mount slide enables the flat cable to be sandwiched between the upper module and its base without the need for mounting screws. The module can rotate in three directions with a simple twist to accept the cable vertically or horizontally. This allows Automacad to stock fewer parts.
One of the biggest benefits of the AS-i network is the ease of adding and subtracting components. "The AS-i network helps make our machine a modular system. We can easily replace a head wherever we want," says Hébert.
Automacad has found that the time saved by using AS-i is considerable. Their team has reduced the amount of installation and setup by days. According to Hébert, Automacad saves three days in wiring and three days in pneumatic setup. If a customer needs to add a pneumatic head, Automacad simply ships the head with the Airbox attached to the top. The customer plugs it into AS-i cable and they can see it remotely.
"AS-i networking is actually helping my customers long-term," says Hébert. But now we promote the long-term benefits such as troubleshooting, flexibility and reliability."
|
