Did you know that IO-Link drastically reduces electrical installation costs?
IO-Link results in significant cost savings even for classic binary sensors. For use as an installation system, IO-Link sensor hubs are available on the market that condense up to 16 binary sensors with one switching output or 8 sensors with two switching outputs (e.g. antivalent or Desina sensors) into a single serial IO-Link connection. Hubs for binary actuators as well as hubs with analog inputs and outputs are also available. Thanks to IP67 degree of protection, the low-cost sensor hubs and actuator hubs eliminate terminal boxes and terminal blocks along with the associated electrical installation effort.
With IO-Link, the installation costs can be reduced even when measuring devices are connected. If a measuring sensor or a freely positionable actuator is equipped with an IO-Link interface, the device can be connected directly to an IO-Link port of the master using an unshielded standard cable. Besides the additional data communication possibilities (additional diagnostics and parameter channel), this reduces more than just the installation costs. The purchase costs for measuring sensors are actually lower with IO-Link than with conventional devices. Measuring sensors normally have no microprocessor that can directly control the serial IO-Link interface. The D/A converter in the sensor is omitted as well as an A/D converter in the interface module of the controller. Thanks to the noise-free digital transmission, a shielded cable is also unnecessary and multi-pin connectors are omitted in favor of a standard connector. Especially significant is the combined benefit of an extremely easy installation and upgraded functionality of mechatronic devices such as grippers, vacuum generators, and signaling devices, all of which would be inconceivable without IO-Link.