The international BACnet standard, which ensures interoperability between building automation devices from different manufacturers, is steadily gaining in importance as new features are being added. Revision 12 delivers a series of innovations that Beckhoff has already implemented in its BACnet stack for TwinCAT.
To achieve intelligent automation that encompasses all of a building’s technical systems, the controller must have the information from each component at its disposal in order to coordinate them. Beckhoff provides the required basic software and hardware for such applications: the Bus Terminal system with 400 different I/O components that supports all common sensors and actuators, scalable controllers ranging from bus terminal controllers to embedded PC devices to powerful industrial PCs, and the TwinCAT automation software with its building automation PLC libraries.
Transparent integration of BACnet
Since a standards based communication architecture is key to vendor-independent building automation, Beckhoff has placed special emphasis on the transparent integration of BACnet in its TwinCAT automation solution.
The rail-mountable embedded PCs CX8091, CX9020, CX5010 and CX5020 are now certified as per BACnet standard Rev. 12. The controllers with stackable I/O levels provide scalable performance, ranging from the CX8091, which supports up to 250 BACnet objects in typical control applications, to the CX5020, which is recommended for applications with up to 3000 BACnet objects. Thanks to extensive performance improvements in comparison with Rev. 6, the controllers are now capable of processing more than twice the number of BACnet objects without a change in processor load.
The precise scalability of the Beckhoff building controllers on the basis of performance classes provides significant cost benefits. Users that require more processor performance can simply scale-up to the next controller platform.
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IT in Manufacturing
The image processing and camera integration capabilities of Beckhoff’s TwinCAT 3 Vision software have been expanded.
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PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Mimic Group, founded in 1971, started with electronic and mimic displays before expanding into control desks, software and display electronics.
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Sensors & Transducers
Beckhoff has added four new vision units to its VUI2000 series. They integrate a camera, illumination and liquid lens technology for simplified installation.
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PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
ABB has been selected by GreenIron, an innovative Swedish company working in the mining and metals industries with its patented materials reduction technology, to provide automation and control system solutions for a first commercial facility in Sandviken, Sweden.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
When custom machine builder Lehnen Industrial Services introduced a filling machine for lip balm, the company was surprised by the amount of interest in this premium system. In order to meet this demand, they decided to standardise the machine. The necessary adaptability is provided by the scalable control technology from Beckhoff.
Read more...Industrial PCs with new processor generations and increased performance Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
PC-based control technology from Beckhoff has always benefited from the convergence of automation and the IT world. Current examples include the use of the latest industry-standard processor generations, high-quality and demand-optimised flash memory, and the long-term availability version of Windows 11.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The new EL14xx and EL24xx EtherCAT Terminals from Beckhoff complement the company’s existing broad portfolio in the area of digital input/output, and combine proven functions with an optimised circuit architecture.