Parma Automation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., established in August 2015, is located in the Modern Industrial Park of Suzhou Industrial Park. It serves as Parma GmbH's Asia-Pacific production, service, and sales headquarters for belt grinding machines. Parma GmbH has long been a loyal customer of Beckhoff, equipping its belt grinding machines with Beckhoff's complete control and drive solutions based on PC and EtherCAT.
Suzhou Parma is committed to transforming the traditional manual grinding process in China's sheet metal industry with cutting-edge automated grinding solutions. We promote environmentally friendly and efficient automated grinding solutions and offer a wider range of customized sheet metal grinding solutions. Parma's product range covers standard equipment and customized solutions suitable for customer processes, such as workpieces like chassis and cabinets, kitchen utensil covers, and covers for food and pharmaceutical machinery or packaging equipment.
Especially in the food and pharmaceutical equipment industries, a finer surface polish means less dirt. These applications often have very high grinding quality requirements. Manual grinding is labor-intensive and generates a lot of dust, posing a health hazard to grinding workers. Therefore, only by increasing the automation level of belt grinding can we ensure consistently high quality and high efficiency of the grinding process for sheet metal products, even for small batches or even batches as small as "1". Based on this, we have developed a new generation of polishing and grinding equipment. Beckhoff's PC-based control system, TwinCAT software, and robotics technology enable belt grinders to automate grinding, reducing manual intervention and improving grinding efficiency.
Hardware architecture for achieving high precision and high dynamism
Suzhou Parma's traditional models already use Beckhoff controllers. This newly developed robotic polishing and grinding equipment is programmed, taught, and operated using TwinCAT software.
Mr. Zhu Yueyang, General Manager of Suzhou Parma Company, explained: "Beckfook's PC-based control technology is very flexible, and even complex algorithms can be easily programmed. TwinCAT software has rich functions and can meet the general needs of our polishing and grinding equipment products. In particular, Beckfook's PC-based control system and TwinCAT software have excellent real-time performance, so they can also achieve complex motion control."
Beckhoff's product portfolio covers all necessary automation components, from EtherCAT I/O to servo drives and complete control systems. The new generation of belt grinders utilizes the Beckhoff CX2020 high-performance embedded controller and CP2915 multi-touch panel, along with the powerful AX8000 multi-axis servo system and AM8000 servo motors. Furthermore, to enhance equipment safety, the entire system is equipped with the TwinSAFE safety module.
Robotic polishing and grinding equipment
The robot's X and Y axes adopt a gantry structure. In addition, each of the robot's A, B, C axes is equipped with a servo motor, plus a grinding head Z axis, which creates 6 degrees of freedom for linear and rotational motion.
The EtherCAT-based AX8000 compact drive system perfectly combines powerful FPGA technology with an ARM multi-core processor. FPGA-based control algorithms and multi-channel current control technology enable current loop sampling and response times of less than 1 μs and speed loop control cycle times as low as 16 μs, depending on the configured switching frequency. This meets the wide adjustment range of the motor and the requirements of highly dynamic robot movements.
Combined with its EtherCAT I/O terminal module system, TwinSAFE provides the necessary speed and flexibility to meet Parma's robust modular design and manufacturing philosophy. Furthermore, with TwinSAFE, required safety functions can be implemented as an integral part of the control solution: for example, if the emergency stop button is pressed or the belt breaks, the drive can stop as quickly as possible via a ramp-down function before the main drive motor switches to no-torque operation. In light-sensitive protection mode, TwinSAFE reduces the feed rate to 2 meters per minute if safety measures are activated.
Software platforms enable flexible grinding processes.
Traditional grinding equipment can only achieve automatic control of the grinding head and the X and Y directions, which is limited to grinding flat surfaces. For curved surfaces and transitions between two flat surfaces, manual intervention is still required. In contrast, robot-based polishing and grinding equipment can automatically grind not only flat surfaces but also curved surfaces. For six degrees of freedom of motion, the program can be input by simply using a handwheel to track the contour of the workpiece, teach its starting point, and input the required feed rate. Currently, each workpiece can have eight faces input, and each face can be taught up to 32 transition points and 8 grinding recipes.
The system uses Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 software, easily achieving robot trajectory movement via teach points on the touchscreen. After setting the grinding process formula, Suzhou Parma's system automatically loads sheet metal parts and uses trajectory interpolation to automatically grind flat, curved, and irregular curved surfaces, as well as automatically load and unload materials. TwinCAT 3 NCI can achieve 3-axis interpolation and 5 auxiliary axis movements. Its rich G-code instructions and smooth transition types ensure the robot's accurate passage through teach points and improve development efficiency.
Advantages of PC-based control technology
Suzhou Parma believes that the core advantages of PC-based control technology lie in its modularity, flexible application of control components, and ability to build optimal control systems. Another important point is the programming speed and control system flexibility when processing workpieces of different shapes. Mr. Zhu Yueyang summarized: "Beckhoff's TwinCAT software is powerful and flexible in application. In the future, there will be a series of polishing processes such as the import of graphical G-code, robot gripping, and belt synchronization. Only Beckhoff controllers can fully meet the requirements. PC control technology, through the integration of motion control, robot algorithms, and a visual touch interface, provides great convenience for us to implement the application of robots on polishing equipment. This universal and integrated control architecture simplifies the workflow and reduces the overall cost of the solution."
Main features of the equipment
Key features of the OG-Twin-3107-AF fully servo and flexible dual-belt grinder: multi-axis collaborative operation (up to 10 servo axes); robotic arm load capacity up to 50 kg; 5 integrated servo axes for rotating special workpieces (as flexible as a robot); coordinated operation with fully automatic cutting tools for easy grinding of complex shapes; interpolation control of axes based on TwinCAT 3 and robot algorithms. This equipment is specifically designed for fully automated grinding and polishing, enabling mass production of workpieces such as chassis, cabinets, and kitchen utensil covers, and allowing for rapid mold changes to achieve multiple production modes.
