"The basis of smart manufacturing is high-speed communication and control"

By transmitting control and production data at high speed, CC-Link plays a critical role in Industrie 4.0-compliant digital factories   In the Industry 4.0 phase, smart factories are becoming more and more important in order to meet the needs of consumers who are becoming personal every day quickly and efficiently. The basis of smart manufacturing is high-speed communication and control throughout the entire process, from customer to supplier. At this point, CC-Link, Asia's leading open industrial communication platform, stands out with its "Seamless Open Network" feature. CC-Link, which plays a critical role in the implementation of digital factories that work in accordance with Industry 4.0, transmits control and production data at high speed in order to provide efficient factory and process automation. With the new industrial revolution, which can be summarized as the digitalization of production, the production chain begins to be managed with an integrated system that covers the entire process from the customer to the supplier network. With smart factories; specialized smart production that responds faster to customer preferences and needs, less error, less resource use and higher quality and efficient production, localized manufacturing processes and a structure that can be quickly adapted to innovations are aimed. In this process, where high-speed control and communication systems have gained great importance, the open industrial automation network technology CC-Link (Control & Communication Link) provides a great advantage to manufacturers. CC-Link, Asia's leading industrial communication platform, is also gaining popularity in Europe and North and South America. CLPA (CC-Link Partner Association), which offers the opportunity to unite the forces of CC-Link compatible product manufacturers and CC-Link users under the same roof, is engaged in activities to spread CC-Link technology to the world. Drawing attention to CC-Link's "Non-Stop Open Network" feature, CLPA (CC Link Partner Association) Country Manager Tolga Bizel gave information about CLPA and explained the advantages of the CC-Link system that allows productivity increase in the industry. The world's first and only gigabit-speed industrial communication platform Stating that CC-Link IE, the basic technology of CLPA, offers the ideal solution for Industry 4.0 applications as the world's first and only open industrial communication platform operating at gigabit speed in the field of automation, Tolga Bizel shared the following information about CLPA; "Headquartered in Japan, CLPA is a global organization with operations in 10 regions worldwide, including Asia. Aiming to expand industrial CC-Link network technology worldwide, CLPA provides a wide range of services, ****from supporting product providers in developing CC-Link compatible products to providing consultancy for CC-Link users on factory automation system installation. Today, there are more than 1,400 certified CC-Link compatible products from hundreds of automation equipment manufacturers around the world. The CC-Link technology is based on the use of an ASIC, which handles the entire data link layer and transport layer and enables communication between devices for reliable communication. CC-Link industrial networks transmit control and production data at high speed to ensure efficient factory and process automation. This high-speed communication connects multiple automation devices from different suppliers via a single cable. With traditional industrial control networks, field devices from only one manufacturer or a small number of manufacturers can be installed, while with open networks such as CC-Link, this number can reach about 300." Flexible production lines that can be maintained without network reset Tolga Bizel stated that CC-Link has the ability to automatically decommission its faulty, defective or maintenance-required secondary station, while all other stations can continue to operate without affecting network response times. Bizel emphasized that this feature, which is unique to CC-Link, makes it possible to create flexible production line configurations. "With CC Link technology, stations can be bypassed without affecting cycle time for flexible production and easy maintenance. This makes it possible to fully create the network on the master station and the actual stations can be added to the network over time or at a later date. These stations can be activated without stopping or resetting the network. In addition, the automatic return function, which does not require resetting the network, allows all network devices to be changed while the network is running. When the error is corrected, the disconnected station can automatically reconnect to the data line. Thus, the need for network reset is eliminated in case of local power interruption or the activation of the safety switch that cuts off the power of local network stations connected to the machine. Thanks to this feature, production losses can be avoided and additional software development and commissioning time is significantly saved." Uninterrupted communication In case of a malfunction in the system, Bizel reported that CC-Link provided the continuation of network communication and conveyed the following information; "In CC-Link technology, even if a failure occurs in the network master station, the standbymaster station automatically continues to communicate with the network. For each network, up to 26 standbymasters can be assigned if necessary, with completely different work schedules to suit each standbymaster failure situation." Ultra-fast data refresh and responsiveness Noting that CC-Link, which has network speeds of up to 10Mbps, can refresh all data from 65 stations (4,096 words and 8,192 bits) in 3.9 milliseconds, Bizel emphasized that this feature stands out as a very fast response time not only for data transfer, but also for the physical digital field response times required in high-speed production lines such as pharmaceutical and packaging machines. Stating that the entire CC-Link network product family is designed for truly identifiable operation with guaranteed response times, Bizel said, "Detectability guarantees that the data sent to and from the network will be processed by the connected devices within a certain period of time and will not be corrupted in any way." No need for special configuration files Stating that there is no need for special configuration files for the configuration of the CC-Link network, Bizel continued as follows; "Unlike other networks where the user creates or uses complex and restrictive configuration files, CC-Link uses an open data table format that makes connecting to any device extremely fast and flexible.Users may want to use a fixed data format, such as variable speed drives, to connect the devices. In this case, there are optionally available data fields for common actions such as forward and reverse movement and speed adjustment, which can be determined in the CC-Link data table and protocol if necessary." High tolerance to electromagnetic noise Underlining that CC-Link is also differentiated by having a very high tolerance for electromagnetic noise compared to other fieldbus networks, Bizel concluded by saying that in this system, users do not have to worry about grounding problems or using special EMI connectors during installation.