Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

From the IMTS Show floor – Part 2

By Design World Staff | September 9, 2008

Share

By Leslie Langnau, Managing Editor

Manufacturing communications – Again

Years ago General Motors spearheaded a move to create a common communication platform that would enable all manufacturing devices to send data among each other. The goal was to increase efficiency. That effort was the Manufacturing Automation Protocol or MAP.

Because GM was the ‚“big Gorilla‚” in industry, nearly all vendors of manufacturing equipment joined the effort. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the participating vendors were not always operating in the interests of the stated goal. Competition, protecting market share, and protecting separate company interests among other reasons, held a higher priority than creating a common communication protocol. MAP failed.

The idea of a common communication protocol has not failed, however. After MAP, the various vendors developed their own protocols, now known as field busses.

And we also have Ethernet in the mix.

Still, we don’t have that one protocol that meets all the changing needs of manufacturing communication.

The latest effort, which is available for your inspection here at IMTS, is MTConnect, a new open communication protocol standard that will interconnect machines, independent systems, and devices with higher-level applications. MTConnect will be a middleware standard with the capability to pass data, even from existing data transfer formats, to higher-level systems using the XML based standard.

The difference between MTConnect and other networks, said one of the developers, Andrew Dugenske, Manager of Research Services at Georgia Institute of Technology, is that it will be open and royalty free to insure widest possible acceptance and utility. One of the main goals was that this protocol be as easy to implement as possible, so it is based on Internet standards. As Dugenske put it, “we tried to invent as little as possible and use established Internet-based programs where feasible.”

MTConnect is not designed for real-time motion communication but will tell you the operational status of connected equipment. This initial version rides on top of Ethernet and sends sensor data out of machine equipment and into a receptive control device, such as an HMI or even Apple iphones. The developers will be meeting soon to develop a bi-directional version.

Twenty-four companies have implemented it. You can see demos at the Penn State Machine Dynamics Research Lab booth, the University of New Hampshire booth, and the Machine Tool Research Center at the University of Florida booth, among others here at the show.

The question is, will industry get it right this time?

www.imts.com


Filed Under: Factory automation, Machine tool industry + subtractive manufacturing, Electronics • electrical, Fluid power, Linear motion • slides, Motion control • motor controls, Mechatronics, Networks • connectivity • fieldbuses

 

Tell Us What You Think!

Related Articles Read More >

Automation 1 Family and iXC4e
Aerotech continues development of Automation1 motion control platform
Motion & Control Enterprises purchases RSA and Global Controls, fourth acquisition this year
49503-ACS Motion-CMxa
ACS Motion Control releases SPiiPlusCMxa EtherCAT motion controller
SDP-SI-040
SDP/SI launches brushless DC motors and motion control products series

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Industrial disc pack couplings
  • Pushing performance: Adding functionality to terminal blocks
  • Get to Know Würth Industrial Division
  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard

Design World Podcasts

July 26, 2022
Tech Tuesdays: Sorbothane marks 40 years of shock and vibration innovation
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings