October 2021System Integration & Control Systems Design
At this year’s Husum Wind during September, Beckhoff demonstrated its many years of know-how and its broad product range for the wind power industry. Among the highlights was a control cabinet optimised in terms of space requirements and wiring effort, made possible by using the EtherCAT plug-in modules from the EJ series.
In the control cabinet, the I/O level is realised with the EtherCAT plug-in modules and a highly compact, application-specific signal distribution board with pre-assembled cables. The EtherCAT plug-in modules are based electronically on the well-known EtherCAT I/O terminals and offer the same broad variety of signals. Their electromechanical design enables them to be plugged directly into an application-specific signal distribution board, which distributes the signals and the power supply to individual connectors, to connect the controller to further system modules. Elaborate manual wiring is replaced by simply plugging in prefabricated cable harnesses. Many of the other components that would otherwise be installed separately in the control cabinet are housed as compact plug-in modules on the board, e.g. relays, fuses or surge voltage protection equipment. This means that the space requirement in the control cabinet is significantly reduced, particularly in series production with mid to high quantities, also lowering costs. Another crucial advantage is the minimised risk of incorrect wiring.
With its broad portfolio of PC-based control technology, Beckhoff appeared at this year’s Husum Wind as a long-standing automation partner of the wind power industry. The focus was on the ongoing integration of all plant and system functions: everything from operational management to pitch control; converter, gear unit and brake control; wind farm networking; and hydrogen technology as a bridge to energy storage.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A plant built by Belgian specialist machine builder, Absolem Engineering features an innovative process for separating recyclable materials. Using PC-based control from Beckhoff, a major problem has been elegantly solved - the generation of different signal sequences for the exact synchronisation of different camera systems.
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Editor's Choice
For every online retailer, warehouse logistics is part of the critical infrastructure. An Australian office equipment supplier has retrofitted the warehouse logistics installation of its central warehouse, and replaced the proprietary decentralised controllers of the conveyor lines with PC-based control from Beckhoff, based on powerful EtherCAT communication.
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The proportion of renewable energies from solar, wind and water is rising continuously. However, sufficient storage options are of the essence to use these energies as efficiently as possible. GKN Hydrogen offers a particularly compact and safe option, low-pressure metal hydride hydrogen storage systems with PC-based control from Beckhoff.
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Editor's Choice System Integration & Control Systems Design
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System Integration & Control Systems Design
Upgrading your control system by integrating PLCs with scada systems should be a simple seamless process. Regrettably, the industry is plagued with control system integration and upgrade myths and misconceptions that can lead to liability issues, project delays, cost overruns and decreased plant performance.
Read more...EtherCAT measurement terminals for vehicle development at Mercedes-Benz Beckhoff Automation
System Integration & Control Systems Design
At the Mercedes Technology Centre plant in Sindelfingen, Germany, car axles are examined with the highest precision on four test benches, in parallel with road tests and simulations. All data is acquired using PC-based control from Beckhoff.
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It is my opinion that most tuning methods are very crude. They do of course also offer a starting point for tuning if one is not fortunate enough to have a sophisticated tuning package like a Protuner around.
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