With the latest update of the EtherCAT Master Stack AT-EM, acontis introduced the combined operation of redundant ring operation mode and the hot-connect feature pack.
This enables customers to perform a broad variety of configuration change operations without having an impact on the productive availability of all connected components.
An application which is configured to support redundancy (redundant ring topology) is connected twice with the control system where the AT-EM stack is running.
Machine operation continues without loss of process data if the link in between two slaves is broken.
In combination with hot-connect this enables the customer to open the link between two slaves in a ring topology without having communication loss between the master and the system;
after opening the ring well defined parts of the machine (so called hot-connect groups) can be removed or added while the rest of the machine is still fully available and operating.
After insertion or removal of one or multiple hot-connect groups the ring can be closed again without having an impact on the overall availability.
By aims of this enhancement customers get the flexibility to enhance or shrink their application or exchange faulty parts without having an overall impact on production.
This enables customers to perform a broad variety of configuration change operations without having an impact on the productive availability of all connected components.
An application which is configured to support redundancy (redundant ring topology) is connected twice with the control system where the AT-EM stack is running.
Machine operation continues without loss of process data if the link in between two slaves is broken.
In combination with hot-connect this enables the customer to open the link between two slaves in a ring topology without having communication loss between the master and the system;
after opening the ring well defined parts of the machine (so called hot-connect groups) can be removed or added while the rest of the machine is still fully available and operating.
After insertion or removal of one or multiple hot-connect groups the ring can be closed again without having an impact on the overall availability.
By aims of this enhancement customers get the flexibility to enhance or shrink their application or exchange faulty parts without having an overall impact on production.
