KEB Puts Motor Power and Encoder Feedback in One Cable
One Cable Technology runs up to 50 metres between KEB's S6 servo drives or F6 VFDs and its TA and DL3 motors, halving the number of drive-to-motor connections on a multi-axis machine.
KEB America announced One Cable Technology on 11 September, carrying motor power and encoder feedback together in a single matched cable between drive and motor. Runs go up to 50 metres, in 1.5, 2.5 and 4.0 mm² cross-sections, with M15, M23 or M40 connectors depending on the motor.
On the drive side it is supported on S6 servo drives from 0.75 to 7.5 kW, and on F6 VFDs from 2.2 to 37 kW when fitted with the PRO control board and Safety Module 5. Both families speak EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP/IP, PROFINET and Powerlink. The S6 includes SIL3 Safe Torque Off and Safe Brake Control as standard. The F6 is software-selectable across induction, permanent-magnet servo, linear, torque and synchronous reluctance motors, which is a wider range than most single drive families cover.
Two motor lines take the OCT connection. The TA servo motors come in six frame sizes with standstill torque from 0.5 to 90 Nm and speeds to 6,000 rpm, in OCT versions TA1 to TA6 with M23 or M40 connectors. The DL3 six-pole synchronous motors are available in 200 V and 400 V versions, reach 9,000 rpm, and deliver up to 70 Nm nominal and 245 Nm peak, with M15 or M23 connectors.
KEB supplies drive, motor, encoder and cable as a matched system, which is the usual condition for one-cable schemes — the feedback signalling and the cable construction have to be designed together.
The arithmetic is what sells it. A ten-axis machine drops from twenty cable runs to ten: fewer glands, fewer connectors, fewer shield terminations to get wrong. The copper saving is minor. The commissioning time, and the number of intermittent feedback faults that appear months later once a drag chain has been cycling, are not.