Expansion Base Unit With Redundant Cable Paths for PLC Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing PLC systems with CPU dual-redundancy architectures are insufficient in reliability due to reliance on single cables for connecting expansion base units, leading to communication failures when cables break or deteriorate.
Innovation Solution
The expansion base unit is designed with multiple input and output connectors to establish multi-redundant cable connections between base units, ensuring continuous communication through dual-redundant bus connection cables.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single cable is used to connect expansion base units, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability deteriorates due to communication failures when the cable breaks or deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the single cable connection into multiple separate cable connections. Each cable connects corresponding connectors independently, so that if one cable fails, other cables maintain communication. This segmentation of the communication path resolves the contradiction by improving reliability through redundancy while keeping each individual cable connection simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent prepares redundant cable connections in advance before any failure occurs. By providing multiple cable paths from the outset, the system cushions against future cable failures. This prior cushioning approach ensures that when one cable breaks or deteriorates, the system has pre-established alternative paths to maintain communication, thus improving reliability without adding complex dynamic switching mechanisms.
2Reliability
If multiple cables are used to connect expansion base units, then the reliability is improved through redundant communication paths, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes each connector universal by designing it to perform the same function across different cable connections. Each connector can handle the same signal types and communication protocols, allowing any cable to serve as a backup for any other cable. This universality simplifies the overall system because the same connector design is reused multiple times, reducing the complexity of managing different connector types while providing redundant paths.
Data Source
AI summary
An expansion base unit includes an input connector communicatively connectable with a cable to a connector in a previous base unit to allow receipt of a signal from the previous base unit, and a plurality of output connectors that each are communicatively connectable with a cable to a connector of a plurality of connectors in a subsequent expansion base unit to allow transmission of the signal received by the input connector to the subsequent expansion base unit.