Bosch Rexroth is introducing new integrated industrial motion control technology with the less than cool slogan, “One cable instead of three!”
We might have gone with, “One cable to rule them all!” or “All for one and one for all!” Lots of companies have offered one cable, not three, for lots of things in the past. It’s hard to get excited over it. But the plebeian nature of the words shouldn’t blind us to the importance of the innovation.
Now, SERCOS, EtherNet/IP, TCP/IP and safety-related communication can take place in parallel on one Ethernet cable, no matter who the manufacturer is.
That’s actually as big as collaborative robots.
Often, innovative applications in industrial motion control show up in packaging. Traditional printing is shrinking. Consumers are reading online more than on paper, so newspapers, magazine, and book printers are being hit hard. Businesses are turning to online marketing, too, and brochures and physical catalogs are few and far between. According to The Economist, the industry is increasingly fragmented, and yesterday’s big players are shutting down or getting out of the business.
This only applies to printing designed for reading. Printing for packaging is booming. The trend toward customization in retail, which often means that one product will be packaged in myriad different ways, has combined with the explosion in consumer packaged goods to create a massive packaging industry.
Creating machinery that can do the job from collecting goods to be put into a box, to creating the box, to printing the wrapper, to assembling the whole package requires multiple servos. Flexo printing requires servo-driven presses.
The ongoing and increasing demand in this industry will be inspiring innovation in motion control for some time to come. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of legacy Indramat and Rexroth electrical servo motors, drives, and controls still working valiantly. Need support with an older model? Call us now — or put our number into your phone for the next time you need help.