Anybus supports Time-Sensitive Networking through CC-Link IE TSN
26 June 2020
The Anybus concept from HMS Industrial Networks is a portfolio of connectivity products, including hardware and software.
Interacting with a variety of industrial networks, it reduces development efforts for device manufacturers to a minimum – and will soon also be available for the implementation of CC-Link IE TSN.
Swedish company HMS Industrial Networks is one of the leaders in technology when it comes to connectivity between automation devices and industrial communication networks. The Anybus product family is regarded as the de facto standard and enables the exchange of data from field devices, machines and systems via all current fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet networks.
HMS is a long-standing member of the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) after the company experienced unexpectedly high demand from Japan at the end of the 1990s: “However, progress in industrial communication technology always came from Europe and partly from the USA, and at the time, the device manufacturers in Asia needed new networks for their products,” explains Christian Bergdahl, Product Marketing Manager at HMS. “So, conversely, we then also included the Asian de facto standard CC-Link in our network portfolio.”
Bergdahl praises the consistent marketing activities carried out by the CLPA and the active support from its partner that ensures HMS has good market visibility: “As an independent network organisation, the CLPA really opens doors for us. We also benefit from its outstanding market observations - it always has its finger on the pulse in terms of its technologies. This helps us to make an early start.”
Consequently, HMS has added CC-Link IE TSN to its latest modular embedded family Anybus CompactCom. As a result, the new technology from the CLPA is the thirteenth network supported by multi-network connectivity but the first to be based on TSN. This will be particularly beneficial for the HMS customers – of whom there are more than 1000 – who are already using the modular embedded product family and have therefore implemented the host interface for communicating with the Anybus modules: “They will be able to access the new network very quickly and easily because they have already done the preliminary work needed through the interface method. We supply the TSN-based embedded product in the desired form factor and customers can get their devices to market very quickly,” stresses Bergdahl.
HMS is expecting the Asian market, in particular, to develop rapidly but the quick CC-Link IE TSN solution should also be of interest to its customer base in Europe and the USA, not least for placing end products on the markets in Asia. “It will work both ways," says Bergdahl, “especially during the second step when our gateway solution for CC-Link IE TSN is also available.”
Anybus gateways link various industrial communication standards. They make network integration and expansion quicker and easier for end-users. As with the two earlier CLPA technologies CC-Link and CC-Link IE, HSM is also developing the interface module for CC-Link IE TSN first. “Then, when we have the basic technology, it will be introduced into our gateways and edge gateways,” says Bergdahl.
HMS presented its concept for the CC-Link IE TSN CompactCom module as part of the Early Mover presentation on the CLPA stand at SPS 2019. The market launch is scheduled for mid-2020. The logical next step is to integrate the new CompactCom technology in HMS gateways.
Factory automation in the manufacturing industry remains the principal market for Anybus. Millions of robots, drives and HMIs worldwide are connected in this way. Fields of application such as the process industry, building automation and infrastructure are becoming increasingly important.
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