Lived Innovation
The Kubler Group is mainly known for its know-how in the field of encoders. But its expertise meanwhile extended far beyond that. The South German manufacturer presented at a press conference among others a linear measuring system, robust inclinometers and an innovative feedback system for servomotors.
This manufacturer is living the innovation. This has also been emphasized by Managing Director Lothar Kubler at the beginning of the press conference that took place in mid-September at the Titisee close to the Feldberg. Meanwhile, almost very fifth of the more than 480 employees worldwide is working in the Research and Development department. This effort was reflected in the presented innovations, which will be shown for the first time to a broad public at the SPS IPC Drives trade fair in Nuremberg.
Measuring system for safe shaft copying
Elevators are moving both upwards and downwards. But this sector has been evolving for many years in only one direction - vertically upwards. About 800,000 new elevators are installed yearly, most of them in China. Considering these enormous sales volumes, the Kubler Group decided to enter this business and developed a linear measuring system for safe shaft copying.
This system already complies with standards EN 81-20 and EN 81-50 entered into force on 1st September 2017 and provides absolute position values with a resolution of 1 millimeter over the whole travel height, which can reach up to 392 meters. This linear measuring system is mounted directly on the elevator car and requires no learn or referencing trips after a power outage. The slip-free measurement is another advantage of the direct mounting. It excludes from the outset measuring errors due to vibrations or dynamic rope effects and thus always ensures the absolute elevator car position.
Besides the contactless measuring principle, long service life is guaranteed also by the aluminum sensor housing and the V2A stainless steel tape. The installation of the measuring system, which can be described as a real child's play, is an absolutely unique selling feature. The stainless steel tape is simply suspended at the shaft head with the snap hook contained in the mounting set and fastened with a spring element in the shaft unit. Nothing else is necessary. There is no more need for installing position switches at every floor, as, thanks to the absolute measuring principle, the single floors simply must be taught in the control.
Robust inclinometers
The robust inclinometers IN81/IN88 (E1 and UL-certified) ensure higher safety in the daily work of mobile automation. They measure geometric data such as length, inclination and angle, which allow deriving important information, for example to prevent vehicles from tipping over. Possible areas of application of these two sensors are, among others, the measurement of the mast elevation angle of a working platform or the use in mobile cranes to measure the outrigger angle and vehicle leveling.
To make sure the inclinometers withstand the tough outdoor use, Kubler integrated them in a robust housing that guarantees protection level IP67/IP69k, shock resistance up to 100 g and vibration resistance up to 10 g. The mounted components have been designed for a temperature range from -40 to 85°C. The IN81/ IN88 measure two-dimensional inclinations in the measuring range of ±85° and one-dimensional inclinations up to 360° with a resolution of 0.01° for an absolute accuracy of maximum ±0,1°. Individually parameterizable filter settings allow adapting the devices to the application; the sensors are optionally available with CANopen (IN88) or analog interface (IN81).
Motor feedback encoder
The communication between the motor feedback system and the drive controller is decisive for the performance of a drive system. Nevertheless, until today, proprietary interfaces, and not the requirements for the application, were deciding on the choice of the components.
The trends according to which drive manufacturers are increasingly following a second-source strategy in order to minimize costs and risks and the opening of proprietary interfaces lead to more flexibility and improved cost-efficiency. The single-cable solution, which allows further cost savings, is another trend in the electrical drive technology. These developments led Kubler to develop jointly with servomotor and converter manufacturers the motor feedback encoder Sendix S36, which is based on a platform and offers the RS485 (+ sin/cos), BiSS, Biss Safety, BiSS Line (single-cable solution = EL), Hiperface DSL (EL) and SCS open Link (EL) interfaces.
Thanks to this wide choice, the electrical interface will no longer be the limiting factor. With a size of 36.5 millimeters, the Sendix S36 offers a resolution of 2048 SinCos/revolution or 24 bits fully digital. A connector concept developed by Kubler makes sure that the connectors on the encoder cannot come loose, even in harsh and rough environments. The positively blocked bearings withstand installation errors and compensate for shaft loads due for example to thermal expansion or vibrations.