March 15, 2017 – In today's production facilities, the amount of control and diagnostics data keeps growing by leaps and bounds. While data for simple transport tasks in mobile applications can be transmitted via conductor rails with a low transfer rate, this is not feasible for complex applications with large amounts of information. Joining the vCOM product family, VAHLE has developed the SMGM (slotted microwave guide micro) data communication system to transmit these high volumes of information. Featuring a gross data rate of 50 Mbit/s, the system enables interference-proof data transfer via the VAHLE conductor rail system.
The data transmission via a slotted hollow conductor is locally restricted. This prevents interference with other radio systems commonly found in industrial applications. Using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networking at the same time as the SMGM data communication system poses no problems. SMGM provides an Ethernet interface that can be used for transmitting data such as PROFINET data. The technology meets all requirements for communication interfaces used in transport task applications involving the safety of people.
Up to 15 network nodes can be connected per segment with a typical length of 100 meters. For crane applications, the data communication system is also available in a “lite” version that allows for the connection of four participants per segment, a vertical curve radius of 2300 mm, and horizontal radius of 750 mm.
