Few companies enjoy the market-leading status that the Card-Monroe Corporation has. Since the early 1980s, Card-Monroe has been pioneering tufting machinery, which is used by carpet and turf manufacturers in 37 countries. Their machines, known for their durability and high quality, are a direct reflection of market needs and trends within the flooring industry.
Throughout the past 20 years, Bosch Rexroth has evolved in parallel and in partnership with Card-Monroe to provide critical components that help their machines operate at peak efficiency, including the most innovative technology in modern drives and controls.
The collaborative relationship was highlighted recently when Card-Monroe needed to increase speed and synchronization for its most advanced line of tufting machinery. The resulting success further illustrates the benefits of having a truly collaborative relationship between vendor and customer.
Controlling the Process
Inherently, tufting machines are a complex network of moving parts, which can include more than 50,000 components. Card-Monroe has pioneered the evolution of these intricate solutions, including the release of their patented ColorPoint machine in 2009. That was the first year that Card-Monroe machines featured Bosch Rexroth drives and controls, an integration that had taken roughly four years to refine.
Just over a decade later, Card-Monroe was developing a new line of tufting machinery and would be one of the first customers to utilize Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX DRIVE, which helped create a much simpler drive system for the machine but also gave it increased functionality to create more complex and colorful patterns.
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Additionally, by leveraging edge and cloud computing using Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX CORE platform, Card-Monroe was able to enhance flexibility by adding features that collect critical machine data on-site and optimize long-term operation.
The most recent advancement between Bosch Rexroth and Card-Monroe has been in synchronizing the 8-14 servo motors on the tufting machines that can reach up to 2,000 stitches per minute. While speed is a priority, it’s equally important to control those motors precisely to produce the most elaborate designs possible.
This is made possible by Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX OS, a Linux-based, real-time-capable operating system with priority-based scheduling and CPU core isolation. The platform uses EtherCAT for deterministic, synchronized data exchange between the controller and the drives, maintaining tight alignment of interpolated and commanded positions.
Meanwhile, the ctrlX DRIVE systems applies tuning and filtering techniques to close the high bandwidth loop, resulting in a motion platform that remains steady under demanding conditions.
Directing that pattern design is also streamlined through the use of Bosch Rexroth ctrlX CORE, which allowed Card-Monroe to drop the need for an external computer to scan a pattern and translate it into motion. In this approach, the open architecture allows the company to consolidate hardware and software functions onto a single platform that meets IEC-62443-4-2 (SL-2) security capabilities.
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The ctrlX Data Layer brings a unified, access-controlled backbone for inter-app data exchange, letting standard apps, like OPC UA and EtherCAT, coexist with the custom machine applications. By consolidating these elements, engineers could focus on process performance rather than wrestling with protocol integration.
Additionally, the integration with advanced Bosch Rexroth controls has streamlined data capture to the cloud with third-party, ctrlX OS integrated apps from the ctrlX App store. Even with these additions, the system provides real-time responsiveness at the machine interface, supported by ctrlX HMI.
All integrations, which can easily be scaled and tailored through the broader ctrlX AUTOMATION platform, has helped Card-Monroe build a portfolio of machines that serve the unique needs of its customers, ranging from low-cost to full-featured options.
