SMC's Wireless I/O Exposes Only Its Own Sixteen Points
The EXW1-RD puts digital I/O on moving tooling without running conductors through a drag chain, and is built so the radio link reaches the module's own points rather than the whole EX600 backplane.
SMC has added a wireless I/O remote to its EX600 modular field I/O platform. The EXW1-RD, announced on 12 September, can be configured as 16 inputs, 16 outputs, or 8 configurable inputs and outputs, with connections on IP67-rated M12 grommet connectors and a proprietary secure wireless protocol back to a base unit. The base unit provides the hardwired link into the control system over EtherNet/IP or PROFINET.
The application it targets is moving tooling — a robot gripper driving pneumatic valves and reading part presence — where every conductor in the drag chain is a candidate for flex fatigue. Removing a multi-conductor run to the end of arm is the obvious benefit.
The design decision worth noting is narrower than the wireless itself. Per the announcement, the EXW1-RD does not expose the entire EX600 backplane to the wireless network; it exposes only the I/O on the EXW1-RD. That is a deliberate limit on blast radius, and it is the sort of thing OT teams have been asking equipment vendors to do for years rather than bolting a radio onto a full-featured bus coupler.
Alongside the wireless module, SMC has extended the EX600 safety I/O module to PROFIsafe, which it now supports in addition to CIP Safety. The safety module carries 16 inputs and 3 outputs and is rated SIL3. Its purpose is the same as the wireless remote's: keep the I/O in the field rather than running everything back to the control panel.
Control.com's framing of the broader trend is that safety signals carried over a dedicated industrial network are becoming the standard topology for medium and large automated equipment, rather than the exception they were a decade ago.