This post sponsored by Texas Instruments.
It’s hard to compete with a modern factory when the factory you’re working in has equipment that may qualify as antiques. Sure, it’s served you well through the good times and the bad, but now those old machines just cannot compare to the newer shinier models. And it seems as though the latest and greatest is edging out the competition nearly every day in factory settings.
It’s not just the machines. Automation technology now allows machines to do more requiring fewer actual workers in modern factories. While these advances may be decreasing the numbers in the workforce, they also save companies a great deal of money.
Environmental concerns also come into play. As more regulations impact the industry to ensure clean and safe standards, the somewhat lax “days of old” are a thing of the distant past. Safety and monitoring systems, as well as storage vats and tanks that may be at the ends of their life cycles, are also contributing to the need to build newer, cleaner, faster factories.
Many factories have extended their longevities by performing incremental equipment upgrades. Bandages and patches can go a long way when strategic replacement of bottleneck technologies is undertaken with vision and resolve. But bandages can also mask what’s underneath and provide a false sense of well-being when a problem still persists.
Not quite ouch-less
We all know it can be painful to remove a bandage, but at some point, it must be done. New and modern factories can take advantage of technologies and services that were not available before. This gives them distinct advantages over their competitors and makes the newer factories better able to operate as part of a globally integrated system.
Fortunately, many newer technologies are converging to create the next generation of automated factories (Figure 1). Highly integrated and robust microcontrollers such as the MSP430 family of processors are critical in the development of these next-generation facilities. Featuring embedded Ferro Electric RAM (FRAM), this incredibly high-endurance technology is based on giant magnet resistance. It is all but impervious to EMI, RFI, EMP, and write endurance issues associated with EEPROM and flash technologies.
Figure 1: Next-generation factories take advantage of modern motor control, communications, processors, and sensor technologies to improve quality and lower costs while using less energy and personnel. (Source: Texas Instruments)
In addition, high-reliability in communications is key. Parts such as the logic-level to
24 V SN65HVD101/2 implement the industrial IO-LINK PHY for standardized resilient point-to-point communications on the physical layer. Protected from overvoltage, overcurrent, and over-temperature, these drivers can use a programmable drive current set through an external resistor to limit short-circuit currents.
Motors are a big part of any modern factory, and advanced motor control drivers and switches allow for more precision, less vibration, lower power, and higher reliability than ever before. For instance, take the isolated TPS27082L high-side load switch, which includes noise resistance hysteresis and GPIO levels down to 1 V without a level shifter. All pins are fully protected against ESD with off-state leakage currents around 100 nA.
Making sense of it all
Sensors are the eyes and ears of the modern factory, allowing designers to rapidly test and evaluate technologies they want to use. Distributed sensor arrays require low-power as well as high-resolution, and must to be immune from several types of noise including common mode. At the heart of any sensor system is an A/D converter and components, such as the ADS1220, provide 24-bit resolution with single cycle settling that supports up to 2,000 samples/second.
Digital filters inside reject 50 and 60 Hz noise, allowing the internal programmable gain stage (with gain up to 128) to extract low-level signals to monitor. An internal 2.048V reference reduces external component count and the SPI driven sensor peripheral also contains an internal temperature sensor.
Another useful tool is the Turnkey IO-Link Sensor Transmitter from Texas Instruments, which allows rapid prototyping, testing, and refining of a wireless and distributed sensor array based on the IEC 611131-9 point-to-point protocol for industrial automation and control applications.
A modular Reference Design can be used as is, or modified for specific applications. For example, designers can replace the on-board RTD temperature sensor (which takes advantage of an extended temperature range from -200 to +850 degrees C while maintaining a 0.17 degree C maximum measurement error) with a different sensor for pressure or shock. Design engineers can also opt to combine this reference design with the Isolated, Ultra-Low-Power 4 – 20 mA Loop Powered Transmitter Reference Design for isolated low-power interfacing.
When leveraging new technologies, it is important to have well-engineered tools and building blocks to reference, ensuring that prototyping and deployment can occur more rapidly.
ADS1220
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MSP430FR5738
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SN65HVD101
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TPS27082L
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TPS60400
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TPS715
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TPS7A1601
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Author: Jon Gabay, Hearst Business Media
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