Did you know that IO-Link drastically reduces the interfaces needed?
Modern automation systems contain a variety of simple and more complex sensors and actuators from different manufacturers that are linked to controllers using different physical interfaces for digital, analog, and serial data. With this variety of physical interfaces on the sensor/actuator side and in the automation system comes a variety of wiring and connection methods. Moreover, a wide variety of interfaces and tools exist for configuration and parameter assignment of these sensors and actuators.
IO-Link provides a universal physical interface for wiring and a uniform interface for configuration and parameter assignment. The welcomed and long-overdue IO-Link system reduces the wiring and connection methods to a single standard interface on both the sensor and actuator side and the automation system side. Furthermore, configuration and parameter assignment of the sensors and actuators is carried out in a uniform manner using uniform tooling. This represents a significant advantage for users.