Written by Mark Lloyd, Product Marketing Manager, Power Supplies and Surge Protection

For my latest blog I want to talk about our latest Electronic Circuit Breaker, yet I am slightly stepping out of my comfort zone because this product features IO-Link functionality, which is something that is usually associated sensors and actuators and not with circuit breakers. However there is an increasing trend towards the integration of circuit protection into industrial networks and in response to this we have now released the CBMC electronic circuit breaker with an IO-Link interface.

So what is IO Link?

Well, I shall tell you what I know about it. Firstly it is being used more and more and is field bus independent serial protocol, that offers new options for communication between the controller and the field. IO Link devices typically send information to an IO Link Master, such as the Axioline E IO Link Master module, information such as status and report errors, but also receive information from the IO Link master allowing configuration etc.

This is what it looks like topology wise:

What about the product you ask?

The CBMC is a DIN rail-mountable, multi-channel circuit breaker for distributed 24 VDC load applications. It allows tripping of loads due to overload or short-circuit while at the same time maintaining supply to parallel connected loads.  It is highly compact with 4 channels in just 36 mm in width.

There are standard CBMC electronic circuit breakers with a standard floating remote contact and then there is the new version with IO-Link. However, all products in the CBMC range can be tailored to the users’ specific requirements.  Each channel is individually adjustable from 1A to 10A for standard versions, and 1A to 4A for NEC Class 2 versions. The required values can be set directly on the device by simply pressing the LED button, which also serves to provide visual diagnostics for each channel via a traffic light system of colours to indicate status. In just a few steps, you can easily adapt the device circuit breaker to your application and to avoid any unauthorised alterations the CBMC also features an integrated electronic interlock.

The version with an IO-Link interface now allows integration of the device circuit breaker into higher level systems via the IO-Link interface providing an overview of all data relevant to the process. The user can modify settings and monitor parameters such as nominal current, load current and voltage as well as individual channel status.

To get to know IO-Link better Click here

For more information on CBMC please contact Mark Lloyd on

Tel: +44 (0)7717 335477
Fax: +44 (0)1952 681 799
E-mail: mlloyd@phoenixcontact.com