Patent 7907846 was granted and assigned to Norgren on March, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention relates to a device for coupling electrical data lines, especially a bus system, to a modular valve station which comprises a plurality of valve modules. The coupling device comprises a coupling module that can be connected to the electrical data lines for converting the electrical signals of the data lines to optical signals, and a transceiver module for data communication with the valve modules which communicates with the electrical coupling module by optical means and can be coupled to the valve module on the input side.