In the highly competitive landscape that is manufacturing, businesses that catch onto the specific technologies being designed to improve production processes will leave their competitors behind.
Breakdowns along the production line can lead to lengthy periods of downtime which can have detrimental financial consequences for businesses. But as manufacturers’ production scales and ranges increase with the growing industry, production processes must be adapted to cater to these new requirements.
For a long time, manufacturing companies have battled to navigate their way through the intricate web of sensors and actuators. Once upon a time, a single sensor acting up required the shut down of half the company to find and fix the problem. But those days are becoming a thing of the past.
Word around town is I/O-Link is the bees’ knees of industrial networks. It’s quickly becoming a critical element of the manufacturing environment; the first standardised IO technology worldwide for the communication with sensors and actuators.
IO-Link gets your sensors and actuators working for you, not against you
Based on a point-to-point connection between the sensors and actuators and an interface module, I/O-Link allows information about process values, parameters and diagnostic messages to be seamlessly exchanged and processed. Ultimately, it’s helping to scale automation and save manufacturers time and money.
I/O-Link eliminates the need for workers to stare at a screen full of numbers trying desperately to decipher and decode them. By collecting necessary information autonomously in a neat, visual graphical display, I/O-Link makes the tracability and analysis of the production process much easier for manufacturers.
I/O-Link transforms relevant information into real-time data, facts, information and commands – essentially transforming your sensors and actuators into accurate communicators. Diagnostics, process values and parameters can all be automated and monitored remotely – significantly reducing the downtime associated with manually reconfiguring production.
In a nutshell, I/O-Link constantly monitors your sensors and actuators so that you can avoid timely and costly breakdowns in production. Disasters can be avoided before they happen; a game changer for reducing maintenance costs and associated downtime.
Installation is as easy as attaching a standard connector; reducing common wiring complexities associated with traditional installations of custom cables and connectors. Replacing faulty devices becomes a simple process with I/O-Link’s ability to download parameters into the replacement device right from the controller, eliminating the need for maintenance workers to spend hours reprogramming high end devices.
Watch this video to see how I/O-Link can help your business improve process control, planning and material management and avoid production-line shutdowns, or visit IFM’s website here.