Project Introduction:
Nowadays CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines are widely used in the manufacturing industry to produce more accurate and complex parts. Despite the increasingly common use of such automated control equipment, manufacturers continue to face abnormal situation management issues. In order to properly control a large number of CNC machines in the factory, managers need to understand the abnormal situations so as to immediately restore the normal functioning of a manufacturing process as well as increasing the equipment utilization rate.

System Requirements:
In general, most users know how to use a PLC to acquire the signals of CNC machines, resulting in the problems of poor immediacy and high implementation cost so our customer was searching a more cost-effective and flexible solution. Since the customer was concerned about machine availability and cost control, the monitoring solution had to be easily joined into the existing network without worrying about bandwidth constraints or expansive cost requirements. Additionally, there are many electrical and mechanical facilities in the factory that can lead to potential operation failure due to severe electrical interference, and therefore the related products have to offer the best stability to ensure the normal operation of CNC system under such stringent environment.

System Description:
Advantech recommended two, ADAM-6050 and ADAM-6017 modules to quickly upload data to the main control room. The ADAM-6050, provides 12 digital input and 6 digital output channels, and is responsible for collecting all switch data from CNC machines by states change. As for the ADAM-6017 which provides 8 analog input and 2 digital output channels, it is in charge of detecting the current changes so as to fully control the machines workload. By using an Ethernet interface, both modules can be effortlessly integrated into the original network architecture and transmit those on-site signals to the Distributed Network Control (DNC) server via Ethernet switch. ADAM products not only provide the active upload function to satisfy the needs of the machining process monitoring but also have a good anti-interference ability due to their industrial-grade specification. The features of the low-power, compact design and GCL programming support also enable ADAM-6000 serial devices to offer easy and convenient maintenance.

Project Implementation:

System Diagram:

Conclusions:
Along with traditional machines, which have now been replaced by CNC machines, factory managers have to maximize the productivity of these machines while keeping control of the costs. Advantech’s real-time and stable monitoring solutions offer industrial grade features to ensure the normal operation and users can quickly and flexibly implement ADAM modules to enhance their factory management so as to improve their production efficiency.