July/ August 2020

PNEUMATICS 46 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS July/August 2020 www.hpmag.co.uk Sarcos Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sarcos Robotics, has launched the Guardian Heavy-Lift System (HLS). The Guardian HLS is claimed to be a first-of-its-kind man-packable pneumatic heavy-lift system designed to quickly and efficiently lift objects weighing up to 45,000 pounds with a single system. It can also be combined with multiple systems to lift larger amounts. The Guardian HLS comprises a single battery-powered pneumatic compressor, together with two proprietary, re-usable airbags made from durable Dyneema fiber, enabling the safe and stable lift of substantial military assets including land vehicles, machinery, and fuel tanks. The rapid-deploy system is capable of lifting a Class 2 commercial vehicle in less than one minute and enables quicker recovery, repair, and servicing missions in the field. Sarcos Defense worked with Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to produce the Guardian HLS – a system that would be faster, lighter, and more stable than other alternatives while eliminating the need to carry high-pressure air canisters and enabling a lift capacity of more than twice the current maximum. Critical military need Dr. Alok Das, senior scientist at AFRL’s Center for Rapid Innovation, says: “The Guardian HLS is a great example of the successful commercialisation of a product that meets a critical military need thanks to the funding and collaboration made possible by the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Program. It is gratifying to see our innovation efforts result in products that will better equip our community to complete recovery, rescue, and maintenance missions faster and more safely than they could before.” The Guardian HLS has been extensively field-tested and deployed in harsh environments around the world and is now available for purchase by military and public safety organisations to support asset recovery, emergency response and field maintenance operations. www.sarcos.com Rapid-deployment battery-powered pneumatic heavy-lift system for recovery, rescue and field Camozzi Industry 4.0-ready valve islands now with fieldbus connection Camozzi Automation’s Series D range of smart valve islands has been extended with the introduction of a fieldbus connection option. Series D is now available for connection to all the main fieldbus protocols (PROFIBUS-DP, PROFINET, CANopen ,EtherNET/IP, EtherCAT and IO- Link) through a new serial module. The combination of the Series D valve island and the serial module makes it easy to integrate pneumatic and electric functions in advanced automation systems, as it allows an increase in the number of controllable valves and interconnection of analogue and digital I/O modules in a single network node. Modular single sub-bases in technopolymer, with an easy valve connection system and reduced dimensions, make this solution ideally suited to industrial applications requiring quick and easy installation in restricted spaces. The entire Series D range is Industry 4.0-ready due to Camozzi’s CoilVision technology. This technology employs sophisticated diagnostics to monitor and predict the impact of wear on the efficiency of solenoid valve parts, alerting users to potential breakage and in so doing, avoiding disruption and machine downtime. Integrated electronics CoilVision technology uses integrated electronics to constantly monitor the operating parameters of the solenoid driving the spool. This data, including power consumption and coil temperature, is automatically analysed and processed by software algorithms to determine the health status of the coils. Results transmitted from the valve island to a PLC or through WLAN to an IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) gateway and onto the Cloud, can then be used in advance to predict a potential fault in a coil, before it can cause disruption. In addition to the diagnostics being captured on a remote dashboard, the valve body also incorporates LEDs that give an accurate indication of health status to maintenance engineers. www.camozzi.co.uk