Balluff offers a family of network modules designed for the extreme conditions of a welding environment. Made of fibreglass and reinforced plastic, these weld-immune modules are able to resist weld splatter, welding currents and electromagnetic noise fields, and ensure reliable signal transmission in spite of ambient electrical disturbances.
The family includes IO-Link masters and IO-Link sensor/actuator hubs with eight IO-Link ports each for 16 inputs and outputs. These will accommodate IO-Link as well as digital and intelligent complex devices. Each input on the IO-Link master is short-circuit protected and each output is protected from overload.
The modules allow the design of a decentralised system architecture in the welding cell outside the control cabinet. Due to plug-and-play and the use of unshielded standard cables typical of IO-Link, the system can be started up quickly. Network nodes equipped with an IO-Link master communicate via Ethernet/IP directly with the main controller or control device on the machine.