© ebm-papst

Siemens SIMATIC: Compact, Versa­tile Drive Systems

Users have a wide range of require­ments when selecting a drive – they don’t just look at the drive power, trans­mis­sion designs, reduc­tion stages, control concept, and connec­tion tech­nology, but also how they can be inte­grated in the higher-level automa­tion network and the safety concept. The require­ments for motion control in auto­mated appli­ca­tions are constantly growing and are becoming ever-more complex. Siemens has responded to this devel­op­ment with its SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE servo drive system. The matching drives can be found in ebm-papst’s modular drive system.


Thanks to numerous approvals, SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE is a servo drive system that can be used world­wide for the safety extra-low voltage range of 24 and 48 V DC. It includes a compact drive controller for rela­tively straight­for­ward appli­ca­tions and power outputs of up to 280 watts (F-TM Servo­Drive), a drive controller for more demanding tasks (PDC, PROFI Drive Control), versa­tile motors, and indus­trial-grade connec­tion tech­nology (Fig. 1). As part of a product part­ner­ship with Siemens, ebm-papst offers matching motors in various sizes, with different trans­mis­sions, inte­grated encoders, and brakes in power outputs ranging from 50 to 750 watts. Users benefit in a number of different ways, from config­u­ra­tion, para­meter setting, and commis­sioning to diag­nos­tics and main­te­nance.

Fig. 1: For SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE, ebm-papst offers matching motors in various sizes, with different trans­mis­sions, inte­grated encoders, and power outputs from 50 to 750 watts. (Photo | ebm-papst)

Making every­thing simpler

The robust, elec­tron­i­cally commu­tated BLDC motors from ebm-papst’s modular ECI drive system offer high power density in a compact design and have already proven them­selves in many appli­ca­tions across a variety of indus­tries. Today, the motor data stored in the TIA Portal already simpli­fies project plan­ning in motion control appli­ca­tions. This reduces the amount of engi­neering work required and ensures consis­tency within the project, making it much faster and simpler to realize motion control appli­ca­tions.

The SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE drive controllers can then be used to easily para­me­terize and commis­sion the drives (Fig. 2). The control system auto­mat­i­cally detects the respec­tive drive. During oper­a­tion, system diag­nos­tics messages provide impor­tant infor­ma­tion such as the motor temper­a­ture, which can be used for things like preven­tive main­te­nance. Thanks to the stan­dard­ized commu­ni­ca­tion based on Indus­trial Ethernet (PROFIdrive and PROFIsafe), this can be accessed without the need for further tech­nical work, either via the TIA Portal or the control system or via HMI or web server, including remote access if required.

Fig. 2: The drive systems can easily be para­me­ter­ized and commis­sioned in the TIA Portal. (Photo | ebm-papst)

In many cases, safety also plays an impor­tant role in drive tech­nology. While the compact F-TM Servo-Drive controller is suit­able for appli­ca­tions with straight­for­ward safety require­ments (STO) and power outputs of up to 280 watts, the PDC servo controller meets the highest demands with STO, SS1, SLT, SLS, and SSM via PROFIsafe. The combi­na­tion of servo controller with an ECI drive has already proven itself in auto­mated guided vehi­cles (AGV) in a wide range of logis­tics appli­ca­tions, from online retail to auto­mo­tive produc­tion and hospital logis­tics. If the drives can be seam­lessly inte­grated into the control system of the AGV, the vehicle manu­fac­turer is on the safe side. When commu­ni­ca­tion is running and safety require­ments are met, this helps them to create their own safety concept and simpli­fies the down­stream approval of the overall vehicle with the TÜV testing body.

Different power classes for a wide range of appli­ca­tions

The brush­less, elec­tron­i­cally commu­tated internal rotor motors from ebm-papst are avail­able in three sizes.  With stator lengths of 20 or 40 mm, the ECI-42 motors with a diam­eter of 42 mm achieve power outputs of 45 to 92 watts at 110 or 220 mNm nominal torque and a nominal speed of 4,000 rpm. With stator lengths of 20, 40, or 60 mm, the larger ECI-63 motors cover the power range from 150 to 370 watts at up to 880 mNm nominal torque and 4,000 rpm nominal speed. Their effi­ciency is over 90 %. Three stator lengths are also avail­able for the ECI-80 motors. They have a diam­eter of 80 mm and achieve rated outputs of up to 750 watts.

All versions can be combined with plan­e­tary gear­boxes in the same size as the motor and equipped with inte­grated high-reso­lu­tion encoders, which means appli­ca­tions that require very accu­rate posi­tioning can also be real­ized. You can find an example of one such appli­ca­tion at Kolbus GmbH, which is using ECI-42 drives as a replace­ment for an older type of motor in combi­na­tion with the compact SIMATIC F-TM Servo­Drive HF v2 servo drive controller to adjust the format on case­makers – machines used to produce high-quality book cases, files, display cards, calendar backs, and game boards (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Case­maker for auto­matic produc­tion of book cases, files, display cards, calendar backs, and game boards. It runs at a speed of up to 65 cycles/min. (Photo | Kolbus)

Tailor-made conver­sion concept for format adjust­ment process

When consid­ering how best to convert the format adjust­ment process, the machine builders were looking for highly accu­rate posi­tioning as well as two other key features: The ability to seam­lessly inte­grate the new motor into the Siemens control envi­ron­ment for the machines, and a 1:1 mechan­ical replace­ment for the previous drive solu­tion. This is where b-drives GmbH came into play. As a system partner of ebm-papst, the team from b-drives has more than ten years of expe­ri­ence in the design, regu­la­tion, and appli­ca­tion of elec­trical drives, which the machine builders are now bene­fiting from.

To provide a drive for adjusting the format, we combined an ECI-42 motor with a high-reso­lu­tion absolute multi­turn encoder system from the modular drive kit and a modi­fied worm gear.

Robert Nohr, project engi­neer at b-drives

Robert Nohr, project engi­neer at b-drives, explains: “To provide a 1:1 replace­ment for the previous solu­tion, we combined an ECI-42 motor with 90 watt power output with a high-reso­lu­tion multi­turn encoder system from the modular drive kit, as well as a worm gear that was tailored to this appli­ca­tion. The power supply of 48 V was also matched to the appli­ca­tion .” (Fig. 4) As there are absolute multi­turn encoders on all axes, there is no need for a refer­ence move­ment after the machine has come to a stand­still as the posi­tion value is retained.

Fig. 5: ECI-42 motor with 90 watt power output, high-reso­lu­tion absolute multi­turn encoder system, and worm gear for adjusting the format in case­makers. (Photo | b-drives)

Fig. 6: The compact servo controllers from the SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE system do not need much instal­la­tion space. (Photo | Kolbus)

This resulted in a plug-and-play conver­sion solu­tion for the machine builders. “Kolbus obtains the compact servo controllers directly from Siemens. A hybrid cable is all that is needed to connect to the motor – it’s connected to the motor using an indus­trial-grade plug,” adds Robert Nohr (Fig. 5). The F-TM modules from the ET200SP system are inte­grated in the TIA Portal via a GSD file, after which the motor para­me­ters are set. A TO drive object must also be created as the hard­ware inter­face. Depending on the version, Kolbus now uses up to 20 of the ECI-42 drive systems on the case­makers. All those involved in the project are pleased with the result of the conver­sion and would be pleased to collab­o­rate again on other projects in the future.

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