NEE appoints new distributor for Turkish markets
NEE are pleased to announce the appointment of ADIM Otomasyon Ltd of Istanbul as their new distributor for Turkey.
ADIM is an ideal partner for NEE as they have considerable application experience in the routing, engraving and
plasma/Waterjet/laser cutting markets.
Turkey is the main territory for ADIM but they can also offer a full sales
and after sales service for Greece and Egypt too.
ADIM stocks and promotes NEE's full range of AMC motion control equipment and compliments this with a range of servo
motors and drives. ADIM can also supply a range of routing and cutting machines custom manufactured to their clients exact
requirements. Their contact information is as follows:
Mr. Huseyin Gumus
ADIM Otomasyon Ltd
Imes San Sitesi E Blok 502 Sok No 13
Dudullu-UMRANIYE
Istanbul
Turkey
Tel (90) (216) 540 96 40
Fax (90) (216) 540 96 42
GSM (90) 533 653 3038
Email:
AMC Binary Coded Decimal output control
The AMC range now allows control of multiple outputs via a single output
command or WinAMC button! By assigning a BCD value to a group of outputs, the binary word can be formed.
Now instead of specifying the output number to be turned on/off, the user specifies a decimal value which corresponds
to the output numbers in the binary word that will be activated.
Using a '1' for 'on' and '0' for 'off', a
simple truth table shows how the output combination may be controlled
For example four outputs are given the type definition BCD in the machine configuration file, configured via the
AMC utilities software:
These give a four-bit binary value in the range of 0000 to 1111. In order to activate any combination of outputs in the
group, the equivalent decimal number may be specified which is then translated to give the required binary number used to
activate the outputs.
The button may then control up to eight outputs from a single button press giving much simpler and more
powerful user control from the panel!
Part marking
NEE-Controls has added a part marking inkjet printer interface to its range of control systems.
Part marking is defined as the principle of applying identification marking to components produced
on cutting machines. A simple pen unit being used for plotting text traditionally achieves this process.
Dependent on the substrate being marked, a variety of pen types would be used. Use of this method
dictates that marking is limited to alphanumeric characters and does not encompass graphics.
Such method is inherently slow, and with increasing productivity of cut components being required,
part marking by pen can become the greater part of the production process. In addition to this many
applications require bar code marking which can only be achieved using a different marking process.
Productivity was recognised as being the major driver when deciding how to mark a
substrate. Therefore working with NEE-Controls and a print head manufacturer a system has been designed
and proven that is capable of marking substrates with text and graphics at up 1.7m/sec.
Precise laser power control using PWM outputs
NEE Controls Ltd has recently added a PWM output to its
AMC-E servo range of machine control systems. Precise duty and
frequency controls offer an ideal low cost solution to system integrators of laser machines. The PWM output
is used to precisely control the modulation of the laser power to overcome problems of scorching caused
by changes in machine speed.
The frequency range is 150Hz to 10MHz and the duty cycle has a resolution of 65535:1. Both parameters
can be set either from an HMI or host PC. Minimum and maximum duty cycles can be
defined to ensure the laser continues to modulate when contouring at slow speeds. Inversely, the maximum
duty cycle is used to limit laser power when cutting light materials.
The PWM output compliments the solutions provided for laser system integrator when using one of the
AMC range of machine control systems. Other solutions include controlling the modulation via an analogue
output and generating a trigger at a precise machine position to fire the laser.
USB2 Interface
NEE Controls Ltd leads the way by adding a USB2 interface to the AMC
range of machine control systems. The next generation of engine cards will have the option of being supplied with a USB2 interface to allow
job data to be transferred in excess of 4000 times faster!
Where complex 3 dimensional job data is being transferred to the control system 'on the fly', it is
essential that job data is available to allow the AMC to efficiently blend many thousands of short moves
together to achieve a constant surface speed through smooth high speed contouring. If the control system
is executing data faster than it can be transferred from the CAD/CAM system then the overall contouring
speed has to be reduced or worse still stop/start which increases tool wear and reduces part quality.
Although our AMC range of motion controller can accept serial data at rates up to 115KB (approximately
11Kb/sec), which is already 3 times faster than the majority of our competition even this is not fast
enough for some applications. Therefore our objectives are: -
- Alternative to RS232 as serial ports are disappearing from PC's
- Increase bandwidth to reduce job download times
- Reliable data transmission
- Well proven interface
- Obsolescence must be unlikely
- Freely available, no additional "black boxes" to have to purchance
- Inexpensive components, allows us to keep system prices down and yet provide our customers with
significant benefits
USB2 meets all of our requirements and more offering data transfer rates of 480MHz.
As the USB2 interface is being supplied on one card, the option can be retrofitted to all of the
AMC range of machine control systems.
Drop in engine replacement...
The most efficient machine control system is about to be turbo charged. NEE Controls Ltd are currently
designing a new engine card that will be plug compatible with our existing card.
We are moving from 32 bit RISC architecture to 64 bit RISC which includes high performance DSP
functionality and floating point co-processor which may come as a surprise to our competitors in view of
how we compare.
The benefits to our customers are immense as it will give our already high performance systems a typical
20 fold increase in computational performance. This means that irrespective of number of axes or geometry
the limiting components preventing you from machining parts faster will be the drive chain. Unlike our
competitors our specification, for example servo and trajectory updates does not incrementally reduce as
you add more axes or the number of commands being processed per second reduces.
By talking to our customers and distributors, as a team, we have identified a number of improvements
that will delight our customers.
Some of which are:-
- Increasing the available job storage from 150K standard to 4MB and optionally from 1.5MB to 10GB
- Provide an option for data to be stored to a hard drive
- Use a plug in storage medium to allow upgrades and job data to be changed easily
- Providing a maintainance free method of storing non volatile job and configuration data. This removes
the need for battery backup as used by many of our competitors
Existing AMC users will be able to turbo charge their existing systems by simply
upgrading to the new engine card.
