A couple of weeks ago I posted on my personal blog, Gary Mintchell’s Feed Forward, about Schneider Electric taking steps to integrate Elau (previously allowed to operate somewhat autonomously within the fold) into a Schneider company-wide packaging competency center.
I also tried to puzzle out the meaning of the change.
First thing is the integration of Elau’s motion and control products into the broader Schneider Electric product line up. Elau has announced that it has come up with a “simplified integration” of Schneider’s fieldbus-equipped products into its modular packaging automation lineup. Dubbed “Easy Integration,” the system uses IEC compliant function blocks to communicate via Profibus, EtherNet/IP, CAN-based networks [read DeviceNet], and CANopen. In addition, the company is developing IEC 61131-3 compliant, configurable function blocks.
Product families already integrated include the Advantys STB, OTB, FTB and FTM families of I/O products, Altivar ATV 31 and 71 variable frequency drives, and (soon) TeSys U drive protection systems.
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George Reed, with the help of Factory Technologies, was looking to further automate the processes at its quarries and make Ignition an organization-wide standard.
