Globally positioned - thinking locally

Delta Electronics has been active as an expert in smart industrial automation since 1971. In recent years, the company has increasingly turned its attention to the European market. As this market differs greatly from Delta's Asian home market in some respects, Delta has invested in both building up local teams and developing features that the European market demands.

Delta opened a site in Stuttgart in late summer to drive forward the development of its cobots in Europe. New AI and robotics solutions are to be developed, and the branch will also house the Robotics Training Center for southern Germany. "We are delighted to now have a local presence here in south-west Germany, one of the most innovative regions in Europe, and want to drive forward the development of new AI and robotics solutions from here. Delta has found extremely valuable location factors in this promising cluster of renowned universities, a high level of inventiveness and the highly developed industrial environment of mechanical engineering and supplier companies," says Michael Mayer-Rosa, Senior Director of the Industrial Automation Business Group in the EMEA region and, since a few weeks ago, also Head of Intelligent Robot Systems (IRS) at Delta Electronics.

Precise cobots for many tasks

Keyword cobots: Delta focused on the needs of the European market when it began developing the so-called D-Bots. The series currently comprises six highly flexible models with payloads of up to 30 kg, reaches of up to 1,800 mm, compatibility with EtherCAT, Modbus and Codesys and integration of 24-bit encoders. This ensures high precision, especially in pick & place, welding and palletizing applications.

"Collaborative robotics is one of the fastest-growing sectors in mechanical engineering and automation technology. Market researchers from Interact Analysis are forecasting an annual growth rate of around 20% until 2032. With our cobots from the D-Bot series, we want to help companies optimize their production processes, increase efficiency in manufacturing and counteract the labour shortage in many industries," says the experienced automation expert Mayer-Rosa.

The D-Bots have six axes for high flexibility and precision and offer speeds of up to 200 °/s with an accuracy of ±0.02 mm. Their range is between 800 and 1,800 mm. The integration of 24-bit encoders increases precision and ensures consistent performance. Supporting interfaces such as EtherCAT, Modbus and Codesys, these cobots are suitable for a range of tasks, from palletizing to pick & place and welding. They are designed for rapid deployment and require no special programming knowledge, so they can be up and running in no time. Thanks to the plug & play function, setting up movements and command execution is effortless.

Components for the European market

In addition to complete systems such as the cobots, Delta also offers individual components that have been specially developed with a focus on local requirements in Europe. These include the new A3-EP servo drive. As the market for automated production is developing rapidly, the demand for servo products with higher performance, speed, precision, bandwidth and functionality is increasing. To meet the increasing demands, Delta offers a high-end AC servo system, the A3 series, with features such as multi-functionality, high performance, energy efficiency and compact design. With auto-tuning and a user-friendly interface for system analysis, the series offers a bandwidth of 3.1 kHz and uses a 24-bit absolute encoder.

The special feature of the A3-EP variant, which will be presented at the SPS, is the addition of numerous safety features, which are very important for customers in Europe. A3-EP is an open platform that supports Ethercat with the extended sub-protocols FoE, EoE and FSoE, among others. The servo drive is equipped with a TCP/IP port that forms an IoT node. The safety function can be activated by a simple digital cable signal. The drive can also integrate third-party motors.

The AX-5 series motion controllers, which can also be programmed with Codesys, will also be making their debut at this year's SPS. The AX-5 series modules are characterized by their slim design, which significantly reduces the cost of the control panel. They also feature removable terminal blocks and a DIN rail clip design to simplify installation and wiring. The system uses a high-speed 100 MHz EtherCAT bus, which ensures high-precision synchronization control and real-time I/O updates. In addition, the advanced slice I/O modules support extensive I/O module expansion with additional system power supply and I/O power supply modules. To best meet individual requirements, Delta offers different digital I/O modules, various analog I/O modules and four different temperature measurement modules in the AX-5 series.