Bus coupler SLIO I/O

electricelectronicI/O

Yaskawa Electric Corporation (Head Office: Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka, Japan; Representative Director, President: Masahiro Ogawa) announced the “i³-Mechatronics” solution concept in 2017, which adds digital data management to automation solutions, to realize the “new industrial automation revolution” set forth in the “Vision 2025”, and it enhances product development to make this concept a reality. Yaskawa has newly developed a controller solution to realize i³-Mechatronics as “iCube Control,” and has been selling the “SLIO I/O series,” an I/O product to input and output data for connecting to various equipment such as factories and production facilities. It launched the MECHATROLINK-4 bus coupler*, which supports the MECHATROLINK-4(M-4) high-speed motion network that further improves data collection performance. *A bus coupler is a range of dedicated modules for connecting to various networks. 1. Aim of Commercialization Various manufacturing sites are accelerating efforts to advance smart factories by improving production efficiency and quality, utilizing IoT and AI, as well as ensuring traceability. The basis of these activities is understanding the operating status (data) of production facilities. Yaskawa starts sales of the “MECHATROLINK-4 bus coupler, “a new M-4 compatible I/O product in the “SLIO I/O Series,” which efficiently and stably collects data from factories and production facilities. This product can be used in a wide range of general industrial equipment such as semiconductor and liquid crystal manufacturing equipment, electronic component mounting machines, metal processing machines, packaging machines and industrial robots.