CC-Link IE to EtherCAT Gateway for Servo Control in Mining

The Challenge: Protocol Islands in a Mining Plant

A large metal beneficiation plant aimed to upgrade its core grinding circuit with intelligent control. The main controller was a high-performance PLC using EtherCAT for high-speed communication, managing critical parameters like ore feed rate, water flow, and reagent dosing. However, the ball mill and its auxiliary equipment—feeders, lubrication stations, and high-voltage starters—relied on CC-Link IE TSN compatible servo drives and remote I/O modules from another vendor.

This created three major pain points:

• 1. Heterogeneous Control Networks: The PLC’s EtherCAT and the mill subsystem’s CC-Link IE are different real-time Ethernet protocols that cannot communicate directly, forming isolated control islands.
• 2. Lack of Coordinated Control: The main PLC couldn’t dynamically adjust feeder servo speeds and mill rotation based on real-time ore hardness and particle size. This led to over-grinding or under-grinding, inconsistent product size, wasted energy, and reduced recovery in downstream flotation.
• 3. Data Acquisition Blind Spots: Critical process and equipment data—mill vibration, bearing temperatures—were trapped in the CC-Link IE network, preventing upload to the EtherCAT-based SCADA system and hindering predictive maintenance and process optimization.

The Solution: Protocol Conversion Gateway

To bridge these networks, a specialized CC-Link IE TSN to EtherCAT gateway was deployed. This device acts as a high-speed translator, enabling bidirectional data exchange between the two protocols. It functions as an EtherCAT slave on one side and a CC-Link IE intelligent device station on the other, seamlessly integrating into both networks.

Key features of the gateway include:

• Dual Protocol Stacks: Hardware-integrated dual Ethernet ports handle real-time frame conversion at the data link layer, ensuring low latency and high determinism.
• Flexible Data Mapping: An intuitive configuration tool allows engineers to map PLC process data (e.g., output image area) to CC-Link IE soft elements (e.g., servo speed commands) and vice versa. For example, the PLC’s output bytes 1-4 can be mapped to the feeder servo’s speed register, while the mill motor’s actual current and vibration data are mapped back to the PLC’s input area.
• Edge Computing Capabilities: The gateway can preprocess data—calculating RMS vibration, checking threshold alarms—before sending it to the PLC, reducing the main controller’s load and network bandwidth usage.

Implementation and System Topology

The integration process involved three steps:

The resulting system topology allowed the PLC to treat the entire mill subsystem as a set of local I/O and drives, enabling unified control and monitoring.

Results: Before and After

Industry Applications and Future Outlook

The cross-protocol coordination and data fusion demonstrated by this gateway have broad applicability in industries pursuing smart manufacturing:

• Lithium Battery Material Production: In cathode/anode material processing, precise coordination between material handling, sintering, and grinding equipment from different vendors is essential. The gateway ensures accurate recipe control and consistency.
• Industrial Robot Workcells: Robots (often EtherCAT-based) must synchronize with conveyors and vision systems (possibly CC-Link IE). The gateway enables microsecond-level synchronization for high-speed assembly.
• Photovoltaic Manufacturing: From crystal pulling to cell testing, equipment from global suppliers uses different protocols. A unified data stream via the gateway enables full traceability and intelligent scheduling.
• High-End Packaging and Printing: Tight registration and tension control require integrating multi-brand servo systems. The gateway facilitates complex motion control algorithms across protocols.

Conclusion

As industrial automation moves toward deeper integration, the role of protocol gateways extends beyond simple conversion. They become enablers of edge computing, data acquisition, and intelligent coordination. This case study shows that by breaking the barrier between EtherCAT and CC-Link IE, a mining plant achieved not only better grinding control and energy efficiency but also laid the foundation for a truly connected and smart factory. Such solutions are vital for industries aiming to leverage heterogeneous equipment data for continuous improvement and predictive maintenance.