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Manufacturing
CNC Control System Networking Solution
Overall Benefits:
- Instant solution to network-enable
your serial device
- Extremely low transition
cost
- Easy integration
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With 80 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality
products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over
the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is a recognized world
leader in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of a wide range
of electrical and electronic equipment. Mitsubishi's products
are used in information processing and communications, space development
and satellite communications, home electronics, and in various
industrial fields, such as energy, transportation, and construction.
Mitsubishi Electric Taiwan Co., Ltd., established in 1982, supplies
excellent advanced products by bridging the gap between customers
in Taiwan and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan.
Scenario:
In the past, it was standard practice to use factory floor PCs
to carry out DNC (Direct Numerical Control) procedures. Engineers
would first develop a manufacturing program off-line in the design
room, and then go to the factory floor to transfer the program
to the factory floor PC using a floppy. The factory floor PC implemented
the program by sending instructions to various manufacturing machines
over an RS-232 interface connection. However, factory floor environments
are not very favorable to PCs (due to higher humidity, oily and
dusty conditions, and extreme temperatures), making it much easier
for PCs to break down.
Solution:
This problem can be overcome by replacing the factory floor PC
with Moxa's 1-port serial device server, MOXA NPort Express (model
DE-311). Mitsubishi has realized several benefits by implementing
this solution in their factory:
- System costs are reduced, due to savings on both equipment
(NPort Express is much cheaper than a PC) and human resources.
- CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) devices can be placed
in a centralized location, resulting in a much simpler overall
solution.
- This solution is transparent—Moxa's driver technology
reroutes COM data through the computer's Ethernet card; the
user does not need to change anything about existing manufacturing
programs.
The solution described here is quickly becoming standard practice
in industrial automation.
Application Description:
Mitsubishi uses Windows 98 as their design environment for producing
DNC procedures. By using NPort Express DE-311's Windows 98 real
COM port driver, the design room's PC can write the DNC file directly
to one of its COM ports (the same as before). NPort Express's
driver then reroutes the data over the Ethernet, and finally to
NPort Express's serial port. The effort required to implement
this solution is minimal, particularly since Mitsubishi's engineers
do not need to change any of their existing manufacturing programs.
Related Applications:
- CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) System
- Distributed Serial Devices Central Control
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