ControlPoint "eFoundation™"
Integrated Power Control, Power Distribution and Safety Interlock Management
The patented eFoundation (eF-785) is a single, rack-mountable unit that provides power control, power distribution, and safety interlock management for automated machinery.
Every automated machine needs to have a way to control its various hazardous and non-hazardous power supplies, and to distribute this power to devices in the machine. Most automated machines also must meet regulatory requirements for electromagnetic compatibility, electrical safety and machinery safety. These requirements dictate very specific control and filtering of machine power, as well as the control of the interlocks that protect machine users. The design and development effort required to do all this power control, distribution and safety interlock management is quite considerable, yet no competitive advantage is gained by doing it well. There is, however, a big penalty to pay for doing it poorly. In most applications, the eFoundation eliminates 80 to 90 percent of this design effort and risk, comes fully assembled and tested, and only costs a little more than the uninstalled pile of components it replaces. The eFoundation is the electrical foundation of your machine. Here are some more of its benefits:
- The eFoundation provides a neat and organized way to distribute redundant, overcurrent-protected power to most devices in a machine—AC-powered devices such as large servo drives; 24 volt DC-powered devices such as sensors, solenoids and other I/O; ControlPoint nodes; and DC-powered servo and stepper motor drives. Power requirements up to 4kVA can be accommodated with one eF-785.
- All power supplies in the machine derive their AC power from the eFoundation and route their DC outputs back to the eFoundation. These outputs are thereby fully controlled and overcurrent protected, and can then be easily distributed throughout the machine. Built-in diagnostics along with audio-visual annunciators indicate system problems, making troubleshooting easy.
- Upon an E-stop, all ControlPoint motion axes can automatically be brought to a controlled stop prior to the required removal of power and release of safety interlocks. This preemptive stop prevents axes from crashing and damaging the machine due to the inopportune removal of power. This automatic function requires no software or software development.
- All necessary E-stop switches, safety interlock switches and solenoid door locks are connected through the eFoundation to seamlessly handle the connection and disconnection of power to hazardous devices within the machine (such as motor drives). This power control is accomplished using patented, redundant electromechanical control hardware with continuous fault monitoring, so you don't have to worry about the regulatory requirements for hardware-only power control, fault-tolerance, redundancy and control monitoring. Thus, with no design effort or time, you can greatly minimize the risk of failing regulatory compliance testing—failures that always occur late in the development cycle, when they are most expensive to fix.
- Regeneration loads are built-in for use by AC-powered servo drives. These necessary loads are normally a shock and thermal hazard; the eFoundation eliminates the effort required to properly guard these loads. They are also fan- cooled and protected against overloads.
- The eFoundation's power disconnect function for DC-powered servo drives automatically provides dynamic braking for all associated motors. This stops motion quickly in the event of power loss.
- Power can be disconnected from the machine's hazardous loads without interrupting power to the host CPU or other devices that need to remain powered. This eliminates, in most cases, the cost of adding an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to the machine. The eF-785 also senses the shutdown of the host CPU and automatically initiates a controlled power-down of the machine.
- The eFoundation's unique design means that all of its components—contactors, breakers, fuses, transformers, filters, circuit boards, regeneration loads, fan, and connectors—fit within a 3.5 inch high, 19-inch rack-mountable enclosure. This is a savings of many cubic feet over most equivalent implementations. The integration of all these components also means that the number of parts that must be ordered and stocked is greatly reduced.
- Most configurations of the eFoundation cost around $2k (and include an integral ControlPoint NC-540 and power supply required for all ControlPoint systems—a savings of over $350 for ControlPoint users). The eFoundation's patented technology has allowed Teknic to create a product that only costs a few hundred dollars more than the raw, unassembled components it replaces. When the significantly lower manufacturing costs are factored in, the eFoundation saves a substantial amount of money in every machine.
