The COMBIVERT F6 and S6 drive controllers from KEB Automation are now available with new firmware that includes a special highlight: CAN cross-communication. This means that plant and machine builders using the corresponding drives benefit from faster and more flexible communication between the inverters. Users can also utilise all process data-capable parameters.

The new firmware, including CAN cross-communication, is available for the APPLICATION and PRO device variants of the COMBIVERT F6 and S6 drive controllers.

The fact that data can now be exchanged independently and no longer necessarily via other fieldbus participants means that a faster data flow can be achieved. In the drive trains of many machines, milliseconds can be critical.

With a rigidly coupled shaft, even the smallest of delays can lead to considerable damage to the shaft in the long term and therefore to machine downtime. This makes the fast and flexible exchange of CANopen process data between the inverters all the more important.

Up to 10 COMBIVERT F6 or S6 drive controllers can communicate directly with each other. The independent exchange of data also has the advantage of reducing the load on the machine’s Ethernet-based fieldbus communication.

Last but not least, cross-communication also enables multi-level communication systems to be set up in which the fieldbus ‘slave’ of one system acts as the fieldbus ‘master’ of another system. Parallel fieldbus communication is supported by EtherCAT and Profinet.

KEB Automation