I am going to be interfacing a Fanuc robot to a Toshiba molding machine. Is it acceptable or good practice to use Ethernet between between the robot and PLC for the permissives (Permit mold motion, permit mold close, ect)or should I do this with discrete I\O? I believe you could configure the Ethernet I\O on the robot side to fail off if comms are lost. Additionally you wouldn't have to worry about the contacts sticking together. Also would it be acceptable to wire the molding machine inputs (Using the molding machine PS) directly to transistor inputs and use a relay output module for the molding machine permissives or should I run both through interposing relays? I know on the machine side they are going through interposing relays that are just regular ice cube relays but not sure if this is done only because SPI is an added option or for best practice. I know you can get a SPI from Fanuc but it is quite bulky and would prefer not to use it.
As always,many thanks
Bill
As always,many thanks
Bill