The Drives & Motion Division of Yaskawa America, Inc. is pleased to introduce a new Kinematics Toolbox for use with its MotionWorks® IEC Controllers. The Kinematics Toolbox is an IEC61131-3 user library which can be imported into projects created with Yaskawa’s MotionWorks® IEC Pro, Version 2 programming software. The IEC61131-3 programming environment provides a perfect means to make simple kinematic mechanisms easier to implement with standard general-purpose motion controllers.

Kinematic mechanisms are being increasingly used by today’s mechanical engineers to replace more traditional Cartesian-based mechanisms on automated machinery. These newer approaches often result in mechanical arrangements that are lighter and take up less space than a standard X-Y or X-Y-Z gantry. In many cases, the servo motors remain in a fixed location eliminating the need for cable carriers and reducing the overall inertia of the system. As such, the mechanism can help improve the overall machine speed, accuracy and throughput while reducing cost.

The Yaskawa Kinematics Toolbox includes two PLCopen control function blocks, along with supporting functions, which provide control of a Delta-2 style and a Four-Bar style kinematic mechanism. An example program of each configuration can also be found on the Yaskawa website so that users can have a good starting point for their own application. It is anticipated that additional mechanisms will be supported in the future depending on user responses and needs.