Digital industrial charge amplifier Type 5074A

Winterthur, April 2018 – Kistler's newly developed Type 5074A data acquisition unit breaks new ground in industrial charge amplifier technology. This unit is currently the only amplifier on the market for piezoelectric sensors with communication consistently based on Industrial Ethernet (IE). For the first time, plant and machinery manufacturers can now integrate any desired piezoelectric sensors directly into a real time-capable Ethernet system, so they can easily make settings on the measurement amplifier via the control.

It is increasingly evident that industrial production is switching over from analog to digital systems. This is because data communication is becoming more and more complex due to the requirements for optimized processes. As we move towards Industry 4.0, older bus systems are gradually reaching the limits of their performance capability – and at the same time, the Industrial Ethernet appears to be gaining ground as the global communication standard. For every customer who wants to be at the forefront of these developments, Kistler offers an entirely new kind of solution for piezoelectric measurement data acquisition: the Type 5074A charge amplifier.

The Type 5074A charge amplifier is an ideal choice for monitoring and optimizing industrial press-fit, assembly and joining processes, among many others. Complete digitization means that the new unit enables direct communication up to amplifier level. This charge amplifier features numerous measuring functions, making it the perfect product for all applications that call for dynamic and quasi-static measurements via Industrial Ethernet.

The Type 5074A charge amplifier – flexible measurement ranges, performance and functions

With the new 5074A, up to four piezoelectric sensors per unit can be connected to the digital industrial network. The Type 5074A is available with three communication protocols: EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP and ProfiNet. It therefore covers all the main standards in Industrial Ethernet. So users have a major advantage: they can conveniently set up and view all parameters via the control. This guarantees control of datasets – with no need to install additional software. Another benefit: each channel can be individually controlled. Direct access to the status of the unit and the measuring channels guarantees that the measurement process will be highly reliable. 

While operation is in progress, the control receives confirmations of status changes: for instance, whether the unit is in 'measuring' status or whether the measuring range has been exceeded. With the 5074A, the raw analog signal from the sensor is already digitized in the amplifier. This means that the disturbance variables that occur in conventional analog systems can be avoided from the outset by inductive or capacitive couplings. Likewise, complex and costly cabling for analog and control signals is eliminated. This amplifier fully supports the latest Industrial Ethernet standards, so it can deliver fast and precise measurements at up to 10,000 bus cycles per second. This makes it particularly suitable for time-critical control processes. Thanks to an oversampling option that allows generation of several measuring points per cycle, the 5074A is also an ideal solution for high-resolution acquisition of processes with up to 50,000 measurement values per channel and second. Customers themselves can limit the process map to the functions they require, so as to optimize network capacity utilization and increase the control's performance capability.

Given the flexibility and functional scope that this unit offers, customers will find that its costs are attractive – especially as compared to analog signal paths. That's because fewer components are needed to implement the hardware, while configuration and programming are restricted to the programming environment that is already familiar to the user.