"In future, nobody will have to spend days calculating cycle times or weeks commissioning handling solutions," says Managing Partner and CEO Henrik A. Schunk with conviction. "As part of our digitalization initiative, we have set ourselves the goal of making it as easy as possible for plant manufacturers and integrators to enter the highly efficient world of simultaneous engineering and virtual commissioning."

Essentially, the aim is to simulate assembly systems in three-dimensional space and to digitally map the entire engineering process in one system, from the concept to mechanics, electrics and software through to virtual commissioning.

Complete package for simultaneous engineering

"In our opinion, no other simulation software is able to cover the plant design process as comprehensively as the Mechatronics Concept Designer," says Schunk. From design in the CAD program and simulation to virtual commissioning and the real connection to the control system, the system covers all phases with only minimal media breaks.

While in conventional engineering, mechanical, electrical and software programming are carried out sequentially one after the other and commissioning only begins at the end on the assembled system, the Mechatronics Concept Designer combines all three disciplines in one interface and thus makes it possible to parallelize all activities. Simultaneous engineering speeds up the system development process, minimizes complexity, increases flexibility and saves costs. Changes can be adopted quickly and checked for feasibility. In addition, comparable follow-up projects can be realized more quickly.

As the simulation software, the component library, the real components and the support come from a single source, it is possible to get started with the simulation software in a time and cost-efficient manner. For this purpose, Schunk has created its 24V mechatronics program for high-performance assembly as digital twins, so that simple assembly systems can be simulated even without extensive software knowledge.

In the first step, the component library contains the EGP parallel grippers, the ELP linear modules, the EGS gripper swivel modules and the ERS rotary modules. In the medium term, all gripping system and clamping technology components from Schunk will be available as digital twins. The digital twins contain the CAD solid model with all geometric data for modeling in Siemens NX, CAE data (Eplan), a kinematic behavior model and a physical model in which the stroke, the extension and retraction speed, the acceleration, the jerk, the nominal force and the mass are stored. There are also PLC function blocks for virtual commissioning to simplify the software and hardware in the loop (SiL/HiL) scenarios.

Interface to the real control system

In addition to a process sequence, the software provides a Gantt chart in which all phases and dependencies are displayed. Even during the planning phase, it is possible to identify where sequential movements are necessary or parallel movements are possible. The behavior of the virtual model can be tested on real controllers such as Siemens Simatic S7 or Beckhoff via automation interfaces, so that plug & work-capable handling solutions can be implemented.

Designers, programmers and project planners can test the full version of the simulation software free of charge for six months. Licenses for the Mechatronics Concept Designer can now also be purchased from Schunk independently of the starter package. as