Headquarters Australia
Beckhoff Automation Pty. Ltd.

Building 4, 163–179 Forster Road
Mount Waverley, VIC 3149, Australia

+61 3 9912 5430
info@beckhoff.com.au
www.beckhoff.com/en-au/

Sep 19, 2025

K 2025: PC-based automation for plastic machines

Christian Gummich from the plastics industry management team discusses specific requirements and technical approaches with customers: Nissei Plastic Industrial presents AI-supported anomaly detection with TwinCAT Machine Learning and XPlanar. The conversation with Ossberger focuses on the production of precision bellows for the automotive industry and the automation behind it using the TiwnCAT Plastic Framework, and Milacron presents the MOSAICx control platform and its coordinated development with Beckhoff.

More about this video

Machine Learning

Machine Learning

Beckhoff offers a machine learning (ML) solution that is seamlessly integrated into TwinCAT 3.

XPlanar | Planar motor system

XPlanar | Planar motor system

Multi-mover 2D product movement with up to six degrees of freedom – floating, contactless, and intelligent.

TF8540 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic Processing Framework

TF8540 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic Processing Framework

The TF8540 software library brings together our many years of expertise in plastics, seamlessly integrating important industry-specific control functions into the established TwinCAT Engineering environment. The TF8540 enables comprehensive software-based temperature control in plastics processing operations. It includes a software temperature controller that is specifically designed to handle sluggish controlled systems in plastics applications. The software temperature control supports virtually any number of controlled systems, while the integrated auto-tune function that determines the control parameters for thermally coupled heating zones enables optimum process adaptation. The software library also facilitates intelligent band heater monitoring by means of current or power measurement with a minimal number of sensors.

TF8550 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic HMI Framework

TF8550 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic HMI Framework

The TF8550 software library brings together our many years of expertise in plastics to form a TwinCAT HMI package developed specifically for the plastics industry. The TF8550 not only offers visualizations and comprehensive HMI applications with minimal development effort, but can also be seamlessly integrated into the other technology packages. Based on the TF2000, the TF8550 provides intuitive user guidance for HMIs found in plastics machinery by means of industry-typical graphic objects and an extensive range of user-friendly functions for specific plastics processes. Graphic objects can be configured for visualization in extrusion lines (temperature input/display), in blow molding technology (wall thickness editor, arrow diagram), for injection molding machines (table editor, graphic actual value/setpoint display), and much more besides. The interactions and HMI layout of the TF8550 are based on the requirements of the plastics market and are continuously being expanded. What’s more, the overall look and feel can even be configured to suit customer-specific HMI brand design.

TF8560 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic Technology Functions

TF8560 | TwinCAT 3 Plastic Technology Functions

The TwinCAT 3 TF8560 technology package combines our many years of motion expertise from the plastics industry. It includes field-proven, pre-developed standard blocks for typical motion applications in plastics machinery. The available motion functions are specially prepared to offer an integrated safety solution with TwinSAFE, while the standard blocks significantly reduce development and commissioning times. The TF8560 supports intuitive axis commissioning and virtual commissioning by means of integrated simulations.

Control Panels

Control Panels

As the front end of a machine, the Beckhoff Control Panels are its visual and functional business card and allow a wide range of customer-specific adaptations.

Plastics machines

Plastics machines

PC-based control optimizes all processes in the plastics industry.

Extrusion

Extrusion

Open automation technology with fieldbus diversity: ideally suited for extrusion lines

Blasformen

Blasformen

Open automation technology: minimizes the energy consumption of electric blow molding machines

Spritzgießen

Spritzgießen

Open automation technology with EtherCAT: ideally suited for injection molding machines