Simple Connection of Analog Sensors and Actuators in IO-Link Networks
More and more users are converting their plants to digital communication solutions such as IO-Link. In addition to a variety of other benefits, these provide detailed parameter, diagnostic and identification data. In standard machine and plant engineering, however, sensors and actuators with analog interfaces are still frequently used—even though their connection is complicated and expensive because shielded cables are required. Some of these sensors and actuators cannot simply be replaced by digital solutions when converting to IO-Link due to limited availability. Therefore, analog devices previously had to be connected to a control system via other communication solutions or parallel wiring, which took a lot of time and caused additional costs.