Miniaturisation and functional integration are the keys to simple construction of vacuum handling and gripping systems in production and distribution. Thanks to mechatronics, handling and robot systems are today faster and more powerful than ever before. Mechatronics permits a high degree of miniaturisation, and this results in significant weight reductions, which means that the systems can accelerate and move faster and thus achieve shorter cycle times. However, in order to ensure safe execution of faster handling processes, suitable monitoring and control devices must be provided and integrated into the system. In order to avoid excessive design, purchasing, installation and wiring costs, field-bus systems are widely used as the communication networks for control. Some types of this system also provide the power supplies for the industrial automation technology. But this is only one side of the coin, since field-bus systems permit, above all, the connection of all devices to a single line and thus considerably reduce the wiring costs. Without a field bus, each device has to be connected via its own cable to the central controller, and this entails a great deal of costly cabling.

In order to simplify the design and installation of vacuum handling systems, the vacuum specialist J. Schmalz GmbH in D-72293 Glatten has now extended their range of compact ejectors of the type X-Pump (SXP/SXMP) with versions which have a field-bus interface. The X-Pump compact ejectors can be connected to field-bus systems in two ways, either via so-called I/O boxes or directly with the DeviceNet protocol. Connection via I/O boxes is available for all common field-bus systems, and connection cables are available for most connection variants. The pin assignments depend on the type of I/O box and the number of inputs and outputs of the compact ejector X-Pump which are to be used. In the case of the DeviceNet version for direct connection, all relevant functions are already integrated into the system electronics of the X-Pump, which means that no separate I/O modules and cables are needed. This reduces the costs for design, purchase, installation and wiring even further. The necessary safety with respect to functionality, adaption and applications of the X-Pump with direct DeviceNet connection is ensured by the official and listed membership of J. Schmalz GmbH in the ODVA™, the organisation for DeviceNet applications which is officially recognised by the industry.