Stober’s One Cable Solution (OCS) wins Product of the Year award

Stober has received the 2022 Product of the Year award for its One Cable Solution (OCS) from German trade magazine Computer and Automation, taking second place in the Drive Technology category.

Receiving the award on behalf the Stober team together with Stober’s head of the electronics management centre, Stephan Scholze and head of development and purchasing for motors, Dr Florian Dreher, joint CEO Andreas Thiel said: “We are extremely pleased to receive the 2022 Product of the Year award in the drive technology category.

“This ranking is a strong testament to our innovative spirit. After all, our goal has always been to develop and successfully market high-quality drive technology for demanding applications.”

In a typical situation, a motor is usually connected to a drive controller using two cables, one of which transmits the encoder data, whilst the other the electrical power. With the new OCS, one hybrid cable does both jobs.

However, if the encoders and drive controllers are located more than 15 meters apart, data cannot be transmitted without interference. This means that an output choke is needed for each cable, which is expensive to fit and takes up extra space in the control cabinet. What’s more, as chokes generate heat, appropriate cooling is required, which is why the Stober/Heidenhain one cable solution is making such a big impact in the areas of operational practicality and cost-efficiency.

Users receive a complete system consisting of synchronous servo motor, cable and the appropriate drive controller, and thanks to the future-proof Heidenhain EnDat 3 protocol, this new hybrid cable reliably connects motors and drive controllers at a distance of up to 100 meters.

The two companies have further developed the existing Stober one-cable solution and optimised it specifically for highly dynamic applications in drag chains. “One of the most outstanding features of our One Cable Solution is transmission reliability,” explained Dr Dreher at the awards ceremony. “At the same time, we wanted to be able to transmit a higher data density to make us more future-proof.”

Stober is the first supplier in the market to offer OCS in combination with the new EnDat 3 protocol solution from Heidenhain. As a result, customers benefit from maximum quality in transmission, diagnostics, safety and performance, making it ideal for digital production.

Stober’s new cable achieves a usable length of 100 meters and since it is optimised for dynamics, it can be bent millions of times in a drag chain.