Electricity + Control December 2018

round up CONTROL SYSTEMS, AUTOMATION + SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Tectra Automation supplies laboratory equipment for Simera’s latest optical payload A new space telescope, for launch into low Earth orbit as part of an electro-optical pay- load for a satellite, was recently designed and assembled by Simera at its laboratory in Somerset West. To execute the ultra-pre- cise specifications required for the Simera SX1 Imager’s optical calibration, the compa- ny contracted Tectra Automation to design and supply a purpose-built assembly tower to integrate and align the telescope lenses. Requiring a sturdy, highly stable design to mitigate the effects of external vibrations when installing and aligning the lenses, the tower structure was built using the Bosch Rexroth range of heavy-duty modular al- uminium profiles and accessories. Inside the tower, a vertically translating carriage mechanismwas designed to assist with the alignment of optical elements. each of the four corners of the carriage, were used to maintain optimum position- ing control for the 30-kilogram telescope at all times in the assembly process. The pneumatic brakes were controlled by an Aventics panel whilst a linear scale with digital readout provided and accurate indi- cation of the position of the carriage. The tower was then mounted on an approximately 400 mm thick solid granite table suspended on vibration isolators to isolate the structure from any possible ex- ternal vibrations, including those emanat- ing from the nearby N2 highway. launched in July 2018. Following from the successful delivery of the optical tower for the Simera telescope, Tectra Automation has received an order to assemble an ad- ditional tower for a smaller telescope. Tec- tra Automation is a member of the Hytec Group and subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth. Enquiries: Kevin Lombard. Tel. +27 (0) 11 971 9400 or email kevin.lombard@tectra.co.za

“The optical tower was a critical piece of laboratory equipment in ensuring a fully integrated, optically tested and flight ready solution,” explains Rosca de Waal, mechan- ical engineer, Simera. “Its design and con- struction provided the highly accurate and smooth vertically translating carriage Sime- ra required to ensure optimum calibration of the telescope lenses.” The assembly of the flight model of the telescope was complet- ed in December 2017, and was successfully

To achieve absolute control and smooth guidance of this mechanism, Tectra Auto- mation used Bosch Rexroth ball rail sys- tem linear guides with pneumatic brakes for maximum rigidity. Four counterbalance units from Bosch Rexroth, positioned at

OPC Foundation extends OPC UA to field level

maintained so that OPC UA can share one common multi-vendor TSN network infrastructure together with other applications. This initiative integrates well with existing joint working groups engaged in ongoing companion specification e.g. description of machines. Stefan Hoppe, President of the OPC Foundation said “The benefit of membership in the OPC Foundation allows companies to actively engage and influence the direction of the OPC Foun- dation and includes early access to the specifications and tech- nology. This initiative will grow OPC UA into new markets and I highly encourage all OPC Foundation members to contact the OPC Foundation to participate”. Thomas Burke, Strategic Marketing Officer of the OPC Founda- tion, “We are very excited about the initiative to extend OPC UA including TSN down to the field level, and the number of compa- nies that want to actively participate in this initiative bringing the technology into real world products. This set of working groups will pave the way for the broadest, easiest, and fastest market adoption of OPC UA over TSN.” The OPC Foundation develops and maintains OPC UA as an open and secure communication platform comprised of an infor- mation model framework, communication models and underlying protocol bindings. As such, the OPC Foundation works non-exclu- sively with other organisations on various OPC UA related topics but continues to operate as a platform, technology, use case, and vendor agnostic standardisation body. Enquiries: Stefan Hoppe. Email stefan.hoppe@opcfoundation.org

The OPC Foundation launches an initiative to further enable OPC UA adoption throughout industrial automation by extending stand- ardisation and harmonisation activities for OPC UA including TSN enabled Ethernet networks The OPC Foundation has announced the launch of its new set- up to identify OPC UA and related TSN-harmonisation needs and extends OPC Foundation standards and specifications. The goal of this initiative is to deliver an open, cohesive approach to implement OPC UA including TSN and associated application profiles. This will advance the OPC Foundation providing vendor independent end-to-end interoperability into field level devices for all relevant industry automation use-cases. The OPC Foundation vi- sion of becoming the worldwide industrial interoperability standard is advanced by integrating field devices and the shop floor. A new set of working groups will identify, manage and stand- ardise the OPC UA relevant topics focused on industrial automa- tion including the following: Harmonisation and standardisation of application profiles e.g. IO, motion control, safety, system redundancy Standardisation of OPC UA information models for field level devices in offline e.g. device description and online e.g. diagnos- tics mapping of OPC UA application profiles related to real-time operations on Ethernet networks including TSN definition of certi- fication procedures. The working groups will closely align with the TSN Profile for Industrial Automation (TSN-IA-Profile) which will be standardised by the IEC/IEEE 60802 standardisation group. This will help ensure that a single, converged TSN network approach is

8 Electricity + Control

DECEMBER 2018