At Hannover Messe this year, Beckhoff highlighted the value that PC-based control has brought to the manufacturing industry, how it has evolved, and the advantages it continues to deliver.
For 40 years, PC-based control technology has laid the technological foundation for all Beckhoff automation components and solutions.
When Beckhoff elevated the industrial computer to the status of a central control system four decades ago, a paradigm shift occurred. For 40 years, PC-based control has been putting the power of IT standards and Moore’s Law directly into the hands of machine and system engineers. With the bundling of PLC, motion control, and technologies such as measurement technology, robotics, and vision on a single integrated platform, users today benefit from outstanding performance combined with significant cost and space savings.
In the 1980s, industrial production was characterised by the classic, hardware-based PLC. The PLC was considered reliable, but on the downside, it was inflexible and expensive, with limited computing power. In 1986, Beckhoff responded to these limitations by delivering the first PC-based machine control system, which gave the target application – a double mitre saw – a significant boost in productivity.
Separation of PLC and hardware
The decisive technological step was the abstraction of the PLC function from proprietary hardware to a highly flexible solution based on industrial IT components. Beckhoff ensured deterministic behaviour by developing its own real-time extensions for standard operating systems – mainly Windows initially, but also others since then, including TwinCAT/BSD and Linux®. Machine builders were thus able to benefit directly from the rapid innovation cycles in IT and increasing processor performance. In the 1980s, for example, PC-based control brought floppy disk drives directly to the machine. Later, Ethernet communication opened up new possibilities in production and for integrating production into databases, ERP systems, and IoT solutions. Today, PC-based control forms the basis for physical AI in the factory.
High-speed communication
Appropriate I/O systems were required in order to use the ever-increasing computing power of industrial PCs up to field level. Beckhoff therefore flanked PC-based control with its own communication systems. Initially, data transmission took place via Lightbus. Introduced in 2003, EtherCAT has since become a global standard that is today deployed by users across all industries and markets. In parallel, the TwinCAT automation environment – which marks its 30th anniversary this year – provided the basis for the software. Since its market launch, TwinCAT has developed into a holistic solution: it combines all automation functions in a single integrated software platform. In addition to classic logic and motion control, the spectrum includes safety and measurement technology, HMI, and IoT connectivity, as well as image processing, robotics, and industrial AI tools. The optimum synchronisation of all processes via the PC-based controller gives users significant advantages, in terms of dynamics and precision, for example.
More scalability, fewer interfaces
In applications today, PC-based control provides exceptional scalability and a reduction in interfaces. Company founder and Managing Director, Hans Beckhoff sums it up: “A high-performance industrial PC, an equally powerful fieldbus interface with peripheral devices such as sensors and actuators connected to it, and control software with real-time capabilities for motion and logic control – that’s all it takes.” This approach provides the capability to consolidate all machine functions – from a simple PLC to highly complex robotics – into a single controller. As well as saving space, time, and money, this eliminates latency between distributed controllers.
In line with the Beckhoff philosophy, the company has been developing and manufacturing all electronic assemblies and motherboards itself in Westphalia since the 1980s, to the highest quality ‘made in Germany’ standards. This offers users security and long-term availability and enables them to continue implementing the latest IT standards and processor generations in machine building.
Basis for physical AI
Four decades after the launch of PC-based control, the industry is increasingly turning away from proprietary black box solutions and focusing on the future viability of open, standardised systems. PC-based control technology provides an ideal basis for the required IT/OT convergence as well as for leading technologies such as machine learning and physical AI. As it reaches its 40th anniversary, PC-based control is can assert itself as providing a future-ready and high-performance foundation for the manufacturing industry.
For more information visit: www.beckhoff.com