In the field of industrial automation, with the further advancement of intelligent manufacturing, factories are often faced with the coexistence of “IWC” equipment.
On the one hand, the core control layer may continue to use the stable and reliable Mitsubishi PLC (based on CC-Link IE protocol); on the other hand, in order to pursue higher accuracy and response speed, new high-performance servo, sensor or vision systems often use the EtherCAT protocol.
The underlying mechanisms of these two mainstream industrial Ethernet protocols are different. Direct connection is like “a chicken talking to a duck”, resulting in frequent data islands, which seriously restricts the improvement of production efficiency.
To break this deadlock, the core is to choose a high-performance protocol conversion gateway.
In this field, Nidaxun Automation has become the preferred partner for many enterprises to achieve heterogeneous network integration by virtue of its profound technology accumulation.
Nidaxun Automation’s CC-Link IE to EtherCAT gateway (such as NY-CE-ECTM series) is essentially a bilingual “industrial translator”.
It plays a key role in the system architecture.
The gateway has a dual identity architecture.
On the CC-Link IE side (as a slave station), the Nidaxon gateway is connected to the Mitsubishi PLC (such as iQ-R, FX5U series) network through a standard network cable, and is recognized by the master station as an intelligent slave station.
It supports CC-Link IE Field Basic and TSN protocols, and can seamlessly map PLC soft components (such as D area, RX/RY).
On the EtherCAT side (as the master station), the gateway becomes a powerful EtherCAT master station, actively scanning and managing downstream devices.
Whether it is servo drives from Inovance and Beckhoff, thickness gauges from Keyence, or IO modules from Omron, Nidasun gateways can achieve precise control through PDO mapping.
During the modernization of a large glass manufacturing enterprise, a typical protocol conflict problem was encountered.
The company’s original 32-axis cross-cutting unit has long relied on Mitsubishi PLC and CC-Link IE bus for control, and the system operates stably.
However, as the market’s requirements for glass cutting accuracy become increasingly stringent, the original control system can no longer meet the demand. The company decided to introduce high-precision servo drives based on the EtherCAT protocol to improve performance.
Faced with the embarrassing situation that the “old brain” (CC-Link IE PLC) cannot command the “new hands” (EtherCAT servo), replacing the entire control system is not only costly, but also faces the risk of lengthy downtime.
Finally, the company introduced Nidaxun Automation’s CC-Link IE to EtherCAT gateway.
By deploying Nidaxun gateways, enterprises do not need to replace the original PLC control system. They only need to connect the gateway to the existing network, thereby achieving seamless collaboration between old and new equipment.
The data after the transformation are exciting: the accuracy has leapt, and the cutting error has dropped significantly from ±0.5mm to ±0.2mm; the yield has improved, and the rate of high-quality products has directly increased by 2.7%; the efficiency has broken through, and the production efficiency has increased by 18%; and cost savings, compared with the overall model change, nearly 80% of the equipment modification cost has been saved.
Among the many solutions, Nidaxun Automation stands out with its unique technical advantages.
The first is high-precision synchronization technology. For motion control scenarios, Nidasun gateway integrates DC-Synchronous distributed clock synchronization technology, which controls the period error of cross-protocol communication to the microsecond level (within ±1μs), ensuring the accuracy of multi-axis linkage.
Second, the configuration is simple and efficient. Nidaxun Automation fully considers the usage habits of engineers and provides intuitive graphical configuration software.
Users do not need to write complex codes, and can complete the “connection” mapping of data points through the visual interface, which greatly shortens the debugging cycle.
The third is industrial-grade stability. Nidaxun gateway adopts industrial-grade component design, supports wide temperature operating range (-45℃~85℃) and high anti-interference level, and can adapt to harsh on-site environments such as metallurgy and glass manufacturing. The mean time between failures (MTBF) is as long as 100,000 hours.
By introducing Nidaxun Automation’s protocol conversion solution, enterprises can upgrade their equipment without having to carry out large-scale “breaking” modifications to the original control system.
Under the wave of Industry 4.0, equipment interconnection is an inevitable trend.
Nidaxun Automation’s CC-Link IE to EtherCAT gateway not only solves a technical protocol compatibility problem, but also provides enterprises with an intelligent upgrade path of “zero modification, low cost, and high efficiency”.
It breaks the barriers of brands and protocols, allowing data to flow freely between different networks. It is a key infrastructure for building an open, integrated, and efficient smart factory.
Choosing Nidaxun Automation means choosing a professional and reliable industrial interconnection partner.
Today, with the rapid development of intelligent manufacturing, Nidaxun Automation will continue to be committed to providing more advanced and reliable interconnection solutions for industrial users to help transform and upgrade China’s manufacturing to China’s intelligent manufacturing.
