Modern non-residential buildings place many high demands on building automation. These range from energy-efficient and sustainable building operation, and comprehensive energy management, through to the charging infrastructure for electromobility and fulfilling new legal requirements for recording energy and consumption data. This can be optimally implemented with EtherCAT-based control technology from Beckhoff, which provides an efficient central automation architecture thanks to ultra-fast data communication. In addition, a wide variety of network topologies can be implemented based on the client’s needs, and all established sub-bus systems can also be integrated into the topology with a high degree of flexibility.
EtherCAT celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, confirming its success as a high-performance real-time Ethernet system and open IEC standard for a diverse range of applications. These include a wide range of functions in industrial and functional buildings, such as air-conditioning, lighting and shading, technical control centres for supply systems, event technology, and measurement technology in energy distribution systems. Fast, consistent and reliable data acquisition is becoming increasingly important. Legislation now requires energy and consumption data for non-residential buildings to be recorded, which can only be achieved efficiently and cost-effectively with high-performance communication technology.
Specifications can be optimally implemented with the EtherCAT-based central automation philosophy. This is based on centralised control technology. This means that the control is distributed to one or more industrial PCs as required. This technology is supplied with the required data via decentralised I/Os and fast EtherCAT communication. A cost-optimised structure can thus be set up with as few controllers as possible, which can then operate the required number of I/O components as an alternative to the more complex conventional approaches, which generally have many controllers which only operate a few I/Os each. This central philosophy is supported by the openness of the EtherCAT-based system solution. EtherCAT provides a technological foundation for integrating all building automation fieldbus systems, and thus avoiding the subsystem bottleneck that often occurs with conventional data transmission. BACnet/IP, BACnet-MS/TP, DALI, DMX, EnOcean, KNX/EIB, Modbus, M-Bus, MP-Bus and SMI, for example, can be seamlessly integrated via the relevant EtherCAT terminals and bus terminals.
EtherCAT interoperability removes industrial networking barriers
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Selecting the right communication technology is one of the most important decisions engineers make, and interoperability helps with that decision. Key development tools and standards ensure interoperability among many EtherCAT devices and manufacturers.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Anyone who wants to efficiently monitor the climate in control cabinets will find a comprehensive range of control cabinet monitors for the DIN rail in Turck Banner’s cabinet condition monitoring family.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Schneider Electric has unveiled its EasyLogic Building Management System range, designed for basic building architectures, to the local marketplace. This is a complete and cost-effective range of field controllers and sensors that are both easy to install and scalable.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The EL6821 EtherCAT Terminal from Beckhoff allows up to 64 DALI/DALI-2 slaves and 64 DALI-2 input devices to be connected. The TwinCAT 3 System Manager makes it easy to configure and parameterise DALI devices flexibly.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The IDEA box developed at Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences is designed to introduce students to the topic of Industry 4.0 in a simple and practical way. At the core of the corresponding demo case is PC-based control from Beckhoff.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The TXMC897 module from TEWS Technologies supports a range of Ethernet standards and speeds, making it suitable for diverse applications, including the defence, industrial, and IIoT markets.
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Editor's Choice Electrical Power & Protection
Transparent energy monitoring reduces both machine downtime and the necessity to oversize the corresponding components. Added to these advantages are simplified preventive maintenance, and increased production efficiency. The wide range of PC-based control technology from Beckhoff offers a solution that can be optimally adapted to individual applications.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The availability of high-performance batteries at moderate prices is one of the most important factors for the success of electromobility. As a long-standing automation partner to the automotive industry, Turck Banner supports the major battery manufacturers with its know-how.
Read more...Condition monitoring in a forging press retrofit Beckhoff Automation
System Integration & Control Systems Design
Significantly increased vibration on machines can result in many forms of negative impacts such as reduced system performance or damage to the machine and foundation. Using the example of retrofitting a forging press with a maximum press force of 2000 tons, Wölfel Engineering explains how efficiently the process was tailored and implemented with PC-based control and measurement technology from Beckhoff.
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