RS, a high-service global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, offers Phoenix Contact’s pioneering new NearFi contactless power and data transmission technology, which is designed to save time and money by eliminating costly, wear-prone pluggable connectors and slip rings — and the expensive unplanned downtime they cause — in industrial environments.
Practically speaking, NearFi technology is akin to near-field communication (NFC) but scaled up and supercharged for far greater functionality and application suitability.
Like NFC, NearFi is a contactless technology that enables the real-time wireless transmission of inductive power and data across an air gap of a few centimeters. But while NFC technology is limited to maximum data and power transmissions of 424kbit/s and 1W, which is insufficient for transferring large files or providing continuous power, NearFi technology delivers data transmission speeds up to 100Mbps and can transmit up to 50W of power over the air.
It’s also protocol independent and capable of full duplex transmission, and it uses a synchronous, bit-oriented transmission method for real-time contactless communication — rather than the packet-oriented transmission method that other current radio transmission technologies rely on — which results in near-zero latency. The only power and data transmission technology with lower latency than NearFi technology is a physical cable. So, unlike NFC, NearFi couplers function just like Ethernet cables.
Other advantages of Phoenix Contact’s new NearFi couplers include electromagnetic compatibility and plug-and-play functionality, the combination of which enables quick, easy, and cost-effective installation and implementation with no frequency planning, networking expertise, or configuration required. They can also reliably transmit power and data while rotating at up to 1,400 RPMs — which makes them well suited for slip rings and other rotating equipment in the food and beverage, wind energy, robotics, medical, and automated manufacturing industries — and while separated by non-metallic materials, like wood, glass, and plastic. This enables their use in clean room applications in semiconductor, food, and pharmaceutical manufacturing operations and sealed enclosures in virtually every industrial market segment.
NearFi couplers’ novel characteristics also make them ideally suited for use in maintenance-intensive robotics applications, rotary tables, workpiece carriers, and automated guided vehicle systems (AGVS) and well-positioned for use in future developments, including time-sensitive networking (TSN) and Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA), which, when combined, can create deterministic, real-time communications systems optimized for modern automation and IIoT applications.
The new NearFi couplers have compact, rugged, and durable IP65-rated housings equipped with LED indicator rings and are currently available in versions designed to transmit power or both power and data. They can also accommodate up to 5mm of lateral misalignment and several degrees of angle offset, depending on whether you’re doing power or data, which offers a fair amount of mounting freedom.
“We’re thrilled to offer our proprietary new NearFi couplers through RS,” said Danny Walters, Product Marketing Specialist – Wireless and Surveillance at Phoenix Contact USA. “RS customers are exactly the type of customers we had in mind when developing NearFi technology. Industrial customers are inundated with challenges, including supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, rising costs, operational inefficiencies, unplanned downtime, modernization and digitalization, environmental concerns, and harsh environments. And several of these challenges are provoked by the traditional pluggable power and data connectors and slip rings that NearFi couplers are designed to replace. So, the convenience, versatility, ruggedness, reliability, and time and cost savings that NearFi technology delivers has a measurable impact on their operations.”
RS offers an extensive range of Phoenix Contact’s innovative industrial electrification, automation, and networking solutions, including the new NearFi couplers for contactless power and data transmission, which wireless and surveillance specialist Danny Walters, recently discussed at length in the RS Expert Advice interview, “NearFi: A supercharged NFC-like technology for industrial applications.”
For more information, visit https://us.rs-online.com/.
