Yokogawa Enhances FA-M3V Range-free Multi-controller

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release on this date of enhanced CPU modules and software for the FA-M3V range-free multi-controller, a PLC with the world's fastest CPU scanning speed.*

*Scan time of 1 ms for 100 K program steps (as determined by Yokogawa on November 15, 2011).

Right:FA－M3V F3SP71-4S,F3SP76-7S
Left:WideField3 Release2

Development Background

As manufacturing processes become increasingly complex, the programs that run on the controllers embedded in electronic component/equipment assembly systems and semiconductor manufacturing equipment are becoming more advanced. At the same time, equipment manufacturers must deal with greater complexity in their processes ranging from design and development to maintenance.

To help its customers develop these programs more efficiently, Yokogawa has developed the WideField3 programming tool for the FA-M3V and Tool Box programming tools for the controller's temperature control/monitoring and positioning modules. The sampling trace function for the FA-M3V's two CPU modules has also been enhanced to allow the long-term logging of field data. With this logging function, any time interval can be specified and many different types of triggers can be set. This greatly facilitates the analysis of problems that can occur at start-up or during normal operation. These new features allow quick system start-up and reduce the workload associated with processes such as design, development, and maintenance.

Product Features

• Programming tools
  In addition to the newly released WideField3 programming tool, two Tool Box programming tools for the FA-M3V's temperature control/monitoring and positioning modules have been added to our product lineup. Ever since first releasing these tools in Japan, Yokogawa has worked to enhance them to meet a variety of user needs and speed up the program development process.
• Enhanced CPU modules with sampling trace function
  Up to 100 traces can be set, allowing highly accurate analysis of large amounts of operation data. By just inserting an SD memory card into a slot on the FA-M3V CPU module, it is possible to automatically log data in a trace setting file that can be later used to troubleshoot problems and debug programs. It is not necessary to connect a PC to perform this task. Remote maintenance of the FA-M3V can also be performed by e-mailing trace setting and results files.

About the FA-M3 Series

A PLC is an embedded controller for industrial machines and devices such as electronic component/equipment assembly systems and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In September 1989, Yokogawa entered the PLC market with the FA500 mid- to large-range model. In December 1992, Yokogawa introduced the FA-M3 range-free controller series to cover the full range, from small to large. The FA-M3R with high-speed sequence CPUs was released in October 1999 and the latest FA-M3V was released in November 2010. (The V is from the French word vitesse, which means speed.)

For more information here - Leading Edge Controller FA-M3V

Yokogawa, www.yokogawa.com.