Engineering.com’s Jim Anderton caught up with Russell Jones of FANUC to discuss his company’s newest—and highly customizable—gantry solution.
FANUC’s new Power Motion i-MODEL A is not your average CNC machining solution. According to Russell Jones, the company’s manager of new market development, it may be the most versatile option on the market today for general industrial machines. “It’s really scalable in how it can be used,” said Jones. “We can do multiple different types of operations.”
Supporting up to 32 different axes of motion, each of which can be controlled independently, the Power Motion i-MODEL A is distinguished by its size and speed. FANUC makes the largest servo motors in the world, so it’s a natural progression for the company to have developed gantry automation that’s really ideal for use in large servo motor applications. Jones emphasized that the industry-wide transition toward servo control of industrial machines is a positive one for the environment—and operating efficiency. In addition to the improved performance associated with the controller, it also uses significantly less power than hydraulic systems.The Power Motion i-Model A is also much simpler to program than its predecessors. In designing the machine’s controls, FANUC sought to “cover all the bases,” Jones explained. The company’s CNC expertise led it to apply the same technology to its general motion controller that it uses elsewhere. In designing the command interface, FANUC considered those with CNC backgrounds who would be comfortable using g-code alongside others who might prefer controlling it with graphical, PLC-style commands. “It’s the best of both worlds.”
Thus far, FANUC’s solution has lived up to its billing as a true general-purpose controller. The Power Motion i-MODEL A has found applications at all points in the value chain. Jones has seen both end users and integrators implement the gantry automation with success. FANUC doesn’t treat the two groups any differently for execution purposes, insisting on tailoring the automation to fit any industrial application. The new solution is therefore highly flexible. Even so, the exceptionally large and fast Power Motion i-MODEL A is first and foremost an answer to large-scale, high-speed process automation challenges.
