Industrial Communication Guide

Fieldbuses

3.9. AS-INTERFACE

The AS-Interface is very inexpensive and ideal for purely binary I/O signals. It has a quick connection concept using piercing needles which penetrate the outer sheath and wire insulation: this means that stripping and skinning the cable is no longer necessary during installation.

AS-i stands for actuator-sensor interface. It was initiated in 1990 by 11 German manufacturers including Balluff, Festo, Sick and Siemens. The aim was to develop a fieldbus that was as simple as possible to use with simple actuators and sensors requiring or sup- plying bit signals so as to be able to connect them to higher-level fieldbuses. AS-i is maintained by the AS-International Association.

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