Low-voltage motor control center with control unit

Abstract

A plug-in device (3) for a low-voltage motor control center (1) and designed to be inserted into a plug-in compartment (4) of the low-voltage motor control center (1) and to output a control current to a motor connected to the low-voltage motor control center (1), wherein the plug-in device (3) has a data interface for receiving and transmitting operating parameters and is designed to output the control current as a function of at least one operating parameter received via the data interface, characterized in that the data interface is designed to receive and transmit data packets.

Description

Technical FieldThe invention relates to a plug-in device for a low-voltage motor control center and a low-voltage motor control center with an operating device. Such plug-in devices and low-voltage motor control centers are known, for example, from EP 2 525 453 A1 and EP 2 031 626 A1.Background ArtLow-voltage motor control centers are used to actuate the electric motors in a centralized manner in production lines or infrastructure areas with many electric motors, so that complex sequences of movements of intermeshing machines, conveyor belts, etc. can be carried out reliably in a manner coordinated with one another. Since different requirements exist for each production or other automated handling of goods, low-voltage motor control centers are of modular construction and divided into fields of standardized size, each field providing space for a plurality of plug-in devices. Depending on the type of plug-in device, it can have different functions, so that correspondingly different display and operating elements can be provided, for example, for displaying measured variables or for operating and parameterizing.It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved low voltage motor control center which can be manufactured at low cost.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention achieves this object by a plug-in device for a low-voltage motor control center according to claim 1 and a low-voltage motor control center according to claim 3.The plug-in device according to the first aspect of the invention is configured to be inserted into a plug-in compartment of the low-voltage motor control center and to output a control current to a motor connected to the low-voltage motor control center. The plug-in device has a data interface for receiving and transmitting operating parameters and is designed to output the control current as a function of at least one operating parameter received via the data interface. According to the invention, the data interface is designed to receive and transmit data packets, for example as an IP-based data interface.The plug-in device according to the invention has the advantage that it can be parameterized via access to its data interface, with the result that the parameterization can be carried out comfortably and not restricted by the position and dimension of the plug-in device. The invention is based on the insight and includes the fact that an insertion device arranged, for example, at the lower or upper end of the field and having buttons and the like can be difficult to operate and displays of the insertion device can be difficult to read. The operating device used instead can be arranged at a readily accessible location and can be used to perform the inputs and outputs otherwise carried out directly on a plug-in device. In this case, the plug-in device can be selected from a plurality of plug-in devices installed in a respective low-voltage motor control center on the operating device or else on the plug-in device.The invention likewise makes it possible to use a separate operating device such as a mobile telephone or tablet computer or else a further plug-in device extended by the functions of an operating device in order to parameterize the plug-in device according to the invention or else in order to query and display parameters or other operating data of the plug-in device according to the invention via its data interface. For this purpose, the low-voltage motor control center can be equipped with a receiver for wireless communication such as WLAN / Wifi or Bluetooth, which can be wirelessly connected to the mobile telephone or tablet computer and is connected to the data interface of the plug-in device.In general, the operating device can comprise a touchscreen which is designed to accept the user input and / or to display the information provided by selected plug-in device. Alternatively or additionally, however, buttons, switches, jog wheels or other mechanical input tools can also be provided, which is particularly appropriate in the case of an operating device provided as part of the low-voltage motor control center, since such mechanical input tools can better withstand harsh environmental conditions.In the plug-in devices known from the prior art for low-voltage motor control centers, operating elements and displays arranged at the front of the respective plug-in device are provided for the parameterization, which can be difficult to operate or read on account of the limited area and the different possible positions in the low-voltage motor control center. The plug-in device according to the invention is preferably designed without operating elements itself, which results in cost savings.However, it can also be provided in the case of plug-in devices according to the invention that these have an integrated operating device which is arranged in a housing of the plug-in device and has at least one microcontroller and a touchscreen connected to the microcontroller. The microcontroller is connected to the data interface of the plug-in device and is designed to accept a user input via the touchscreen and to generate the at least one operating parameter as a function of the accepted user input and to send it to the data interface of the plug-in device or to query the at least one operating parameter as a function of the accepted user input via the data interface of the plug-in device ( 3) and to display it on the touchscreen. This means that in such an embodiment variant of the plug-in device according to the invention, two logic devices are realized in a physical plug-in device, on the one hand the plug-in device in the conventional sense with its protection, measurement and / or control functions dependent on the respective embodiment of the plug-in device and on the other hand an operating device which is connected in terms of data to the data interface of the plug-in device. In contrast to the prior art, the connection between the operating elements on the one hand and the actual plug-in device on the other hand is not realized by simple signal lines, but rather via a communication interface, so that the operating elements could be arranged at any desired distance from the plug-in device. This creates a modular platform in which the various core functions of plug-in devices can be carried out with or without an operating device installed in the same plug-in device. In an embodiment of an insert device according to the invention without an integrated operating device, the data interface of the insert device is opened outside the insert device by data technology, so that the parameterization and other control of the insert device can be carried out by a separate operating device.A second aspect of the invention introduces a low voltage motor control center having at least one panel comprising a plurality of slot devices removably inserted into a slot of the low voltage motor control center. According to the invention, at least one of the plug-in devices is configured according to the first aspect of the invention.In principle, a plurality of plug-in devices of the low-voltage motor control center can have a common operating device. Preferably, at least one of the low voltage engine control center slot devices does not have a user interface for receiving user input. This means that such a plug-in device without a user interface can only be controlled via the operating device, which can be provided, for example, as a separate device in the low-voltage motor control center. Particularly preferably, only one operating device is provided in one field of the low-voltage motor control center or also only one operating device is provided in a low-voltage motor control center having a plurality of fields.As described above, the operating device itself can be designed as a further plug-in device and can be inserted releasably into a further plug-in compartment of the low-voltage motor control center. The operating device can have only the above-described functionality for selecting and controlling the plug-in devices. In this case, it is a dedicated operating device. However, the operating device can also have additional functionalities, as a conventional low-voltage motor control plug-in device. The latter alternative makes it possible to design an insertion device as an insertion device extended by the functions of the operating device and to select the further insertion devices in a simple design, so that the space for a dedicated operating device can be saved. In this case, it is appropriate to connect the plug-in device, which is extended by the functionality of the operating device, to functionalities which are particularly frequently or fundamentally required, such as switching on and off, running the motor to the left and right, parameterizing the triggering characteristic curve of a low-voltage motor control center plug-in device, with the result that as few variants of plug-in devices as possible have to be provided.However, the dedicated operating device can also be arranged remote from the plug-in devices and in this case connected to the data interface of the plug-in device or the plug-in devices by data technology. For example, the plug-in devices can be connected to the dedicated operating device via a data bus in a backplane of the low-voltage motor control center in terms of data technology. The use of a data bus has the advantage that no free wiring has to be produced between the dedicated operating device and each controllable plug-in device, but all devices communicate via a common medium, as a result of which an additional degree of freedom is granted in the arrangement of the plug-in devices and the dedicated operating device.For example, the data bus can be detachably electrically connected to the plug-in devices by electromechanical contacts. In this case, the data connection can be established when a plug-in device is inserted into a plug-in compartment of the low-voltage motor control center and locked there.The dedicated operating device can advantageously be arranged in a cabinet door of the low-voltage motor control center. This makes it possible to conveniently operate the dedicated operation device, and it may be disposed on either the inside or the outside of the cabinet door. In the first case, the dedicated operating device is also physically protected from unauthorized access (in principle, the operating device can be protected from unauthorized access by means of keywords or similar known access control means), and in the second case, access to the operating device is particularly convenient and in particular also possible without opening the cabinet door.At least one of the plug-in devices of the low-voltage motor control center can be equipped with a lighting means and can be designed to display, with the lighting means, a selection of the at least one of the plug-in devices by the operating device as a function of the received user input. As a result, it is immediately recognizable during operation whether the selection made at the operating device actually corresponds to the desired plug-in device.Brief Description of the FiguresThe invention is explained in more detail below with reference to exemplary embodiments. The following are shown: FIG. 1 shows a conventional low voltage motor control center; FIG. 2 shows a first exemplary embodiment of a low-voltage motor control center according to the invention; and FIG. 3 shows a second exemplary embodiment of a low-voltage motor control center according to the invention.DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURESFIG. 1 shows a conventional low-voltage engine control center 1, which has a single field 2 in the example shown. The field 2 of the low-voltage motor control center 1 has a plurality of compartments 4 into which compartments 3 are inserted. A plurality of compartments 4 remain empty, so that the low-voltage motor control center 1 shown can be extended by further devices. The slide-in devices 3 are divided into quarter and half slides, the quarter slides being arranged at the top and the half slides being arranged beneath. Among the latter devices, in the example shown, two full inserts are available which occupy the full width of the field 2. Right from the panel 2 is seen a compartment of the low-voltage motor control center 1 which is closed by a cabinet door 6 and does not accommodate plug-in devices. In such a compartment, for example, cables or busbars can be arranged in the vertical direction from a cable connection region for ground cables to horizontally running busbars in the upper region of the low-voltage motor control center 1.FIG. 2 shows a first exemplary embodiment of a low-voltage engine control center 1 according to the invention, which is further developed according to the invention compared to the conventional low-voltage engine control center shown in FIG. 1. Differences between the embodiments of the invention and the conventional low-voltage motor control center of FIG. 1 will be substantially explained below. The construction of the low-voltage engine control center according to the invention otherwise corresponds largely to that of the conventional low-voltage engine control center.At least some of the plug-in devices 3 of the low-voltage motor control center 1 of FIG. 3 are designed according to the invention as operating devices 5 which have a touchscreen, but do not have any other, in particular mechanical, input interfaces which can be operated by a user. The plug-in devices 3 equipped with touchscreens can be operated and configured directly via their respective touchscreen, wherein the touchscreen is provided not only for the parameterization but also for the display of information requested by a user, such as parameters for the operation of the respective plug-in device 3 and for the adaptation thereof.It can be provided here to select and control other plug-in devices 3 via a plug-in device 3 equipped with a touchscreen. The selected plug-in device 3 will usually be a plug-in device without a touchscreen, which can be freely combined with the plug-in device 3 designed as an operating device 5 according to type and functionality.However, it is also possible to select and control another plug-in device 3 designed as an operating device 5 from one plug-in device 3 designed as an operating device 5. This is useful, for example, when the selecting and controlling plug-in device 3 is more easily accessible and readable by an operating person.It is conceivable here that an operating device 5 designed as an insertion device 3 is connected in terms of data only to other insertion devices 3 of the same insertion compartment 4, but not to insertion devices 3 of other insertion compartments 4 which are arranged below or above in the same field 2. In such a case, at least one plug-in device 3 in each row of a field 2 should be designed as an operating device 5. However, it can also be provided that a single operating device 5 is connected in terms of data technology to all other plug-in devices 3 of the field 2 or-if provided-even to plug-in devices of adjacent fields 2 of the low-voltage motor control center.Basically, plug-in devices 3 of the low-voltage motor control center 1 according to the invention, which can be selected and controlled by an operating device 5, can be executed without any operating element, which leads to cost savings and reduced susceptibility to errors of the plug-in devices 3.FIG. 3 shows a second exemplary embodiment of a low-voltage motor control center 1 according to the invention, in which the plug-in devices 3 are designed without operator control elements. In individual cases, in addition to such plug-in devices 3 without operating elements, plug-in devices 3 according to the prior art with electromechanical or other operating elements can of course also be provided. A dedicated operating device 5 is provided in the cabinet door 6, by means of which the plug-in devices 3 of the panel 2 can be controlled. This placement advantageously allows the use of a larger touchscreen than would be accommodated on a plug-in device 3 of standardized size. In addition, the operating device 5 can be arranged at a height that can be easily reached and read by operating personnel of different body sizes. When using an operating device 5, all plug-in devices 3 can be designed without their own operating elements, which brings with it the above-mentioned advantages.The invention has been explained in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments. The exemplary embodiments serve merely for better understanding of the invention and are not intended to limit it, as it is defined solely by the following patent claims.List of reference characters1 Low-voltage motor control center 2 Field 3 Plug-in device 4 Plug-in compartment 5 Operating device 6 Cabinet door

Claims

A plug-in device (3) for a low-voltage motor control center (1) and designed to be inserted into a plug-in compartment (4) of the low-voltage motor control center (1) and to output a control current to a motor connected to the low-voltage motor control center (1), wherein the plug-in device (3) has a data interface for receiving and transmitting operating parameters and is designed to output the control current as a function of at least one operating parameter received via the data interface, characterized in that the data interface is designed to receive and transmit data packets.The plug-in device (3) of the preceding claim, having an integrated operating device (5) which is arranged in a housing of the plug-in device (3) and has a microcontroller and a touchscreen connected to the microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller is connected to the data interface of the plug-in device (3) and is designed to accept a user input via the touchscreen and to generate the at least one operating parameter as a function of the accepted user input and to transmit it to the data interface of the plug-in device (3) or, as a function of the accepted user input, to query the at least one operating parameter via the data interface of the plug-in device (3) and to display it on the touchscreen.A low-voltage motor control center (1) having at least one panel (2) comprising a plurality of plug-in devices (3) which are releasably inserted into a plug-in compartment (4) of the low-voltage motor control center (1), characterized in that at least one of the plug-in devices is designed according to one of the preceding claims.The low voltage motor control center (1) of the preceding claim, wherein at least one of the plug-in devices (3) does not comprise a user interface for receiving user inputs.The low-voltage motor control center (1) according to one of claims 3 or 4, having a dedicated operating device (5) which is arranged remote from the plug-in devices (3) in the low-voltage motor control center (1) and is connected to the data interface of the at least one plug-in device (3).The low-voltage motor control center (1) of the preceding claim, wherein the dedicated operating device (5) is connected to the data interface of the at least one plug-in device (3) via a data bus, which is detachably electrically connected to the at least one plug-in device (3).The low-voltage motor control center (1) according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the dedicated control device (5) is arranged in a cabinet door (6) of the low-voltage motor control center (1).The low-voltage motor control center (1) of one of the preceding claims, in which the at least one plug-in device (3) is equipped with a lighting means and is designed to display, with the lighting means, a selection of the at least one plug-in device (3) by the operating device (5) as a function of the received user input.

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