Combined galvanometer scanners and motion platforms over standard industrial ethernet networks
Cliff Jolliffe, Holger Schluter, Ze’ev Kirshenboim · 2018
There is a growing interest from machine builders to combine the capabilities of high speed laser galvanometer scanners with traditional machine tool platforms to achieve flexible laser machining processes. However, there are certain hurdles that a machine builder needs to overcome to manufacture a unified tool. Traditionally the galvanometer scanner control platform is isolated from the automation controller that is typically used to control the motion and operation of machine tool tables. This paper describes the use of an Industry standard industrial network, i.e. EtherCAT to combine the operations of two such platforms to produce an integrated automation platform. This approach has considerable importance as Industry 4.0 leads automation away from proprietary networks.