Balluff and TI: Communication for smart factory automation

Sensing and automation are crucial to helping manufacturers monitor and control equipment on the factory floor. Balluff recognized this need and collaborated with TI to design their remote I/O. These I/O modules act as gateways to IO-Link, a technology which connects sensors and actuators to control systems, and translate signals and manage communication across industrial networks to speed deployment and real-time responsiveness in smart factories. Balluff engineers used TI processing and communication technology to design their modules, which work across many factory systems and are compatible with a range of industrial network environments, making them easier to commission during setup or replacement in the field.

“TI’s technology allowed us to achieve faster data transmission, lower system latencies, and increase system reliability,” said Marius Matz, head of product management networking at Balluff. “This is essential for the future of smart manufacturing, and can enable higher operational efficiency, better uptime and more informed decision-making based on real-time data.”

Smart factories require fast, reliable network communication across different types of industrial networks without manual configuration. One way for industrial automation manufacturers to achieve this is by enabling protocol support in advance, so that customers can deploy I/O modules more easily across a range of factory systems. But doing so creates a significant communication challenge: connecting sensors and actuators to programmable logic controllers on a single chip.

Balluff, an intelligent automation solutions provider, develops industrial gateways to IO-link and designs flexible industrial I/O modules that make automation smarter and more scalable. Balluff integrated TI’s processors and PHY transceivers to meet the challenge of supporting multiple protocols in one platform without additional complexity.

“Industrial automation helps manufacturers improve operational efficiency, increase equipment uptime, and make better-informed decisions using real-time data,” said Giovanni Campanella, general manager for factory automation, motor drives and robotics at TI. “Delivering those benefits requires modular systems that are easy to deploy, scale and maintain, with built-in support for edge processing and industrial communication.”

Balluff designed their remote I/O module that used the DP83826, TI’s 100Mbps standard Ethernet PHY transceiver, to support real-time protocols by adding minimal latency. With the DP83826, Baluff could enable preinstallation of major fieldbus protocols such as Ethernet/Internet Protocol, Profinet and EtherCAT, enabling its customers to use any of those protocols out of the box without additional setup.

To complement the product’s protocol flexibility, Balluff engineers chose the TI AM2434 MCU as the processing platform for their module in order to deliver fast and reliable data exchange and support for a range of industrial protocols. This foundation enabled faster communication cycles, reduced latency and simplified protocol switching, all of which are vital for maintaining productivity in dynamic, multiprotocol factory environments. By using both the AM2434 MCU and DP83826 PHY transceiver, Balluff also saved time they would have spent configuring parts to communicate with one another and improved system integration, advantages that directly support the mission to help their customers increase productivity and competitiveness.