The PC-based control principle
With its PC-based control technology, Beckhoff offers comprehensive system solutions in various performance classes for all areas of automation. The basic principle is based on a powerful Industrial PC, a high-performance fieldbus connection with the connected peripheral devices for sensors and actuators, and the software for engineering and real-time control. The control platform is supplemented by an extensive portfolio of drive components. The TwinCAT automation software, the "brain" of the machine, bundles all necessary functionalities such as PLC, motion control, robotics, measurement technology, image processing, communication, IoT functions and the HMI operating software into a single package.
Due to the high performance of modern processors, which Beckhoff installs in all of its PC series, and the integration of MATLAB®/Simulink® in TwinCAT, computationally intensive applications such as image processing systems, measurement technology or simulation can easily be integrated into the control platform. This leads to a high functional use of the controller and allows the realization of cutting-edge technology at comparatively low total costs. Precisely scalable in terms of performance and modular in structure, the Beckhoff control and drive technology can be optimally adapted to a wide range of applications.
With the implementation of Microsoft Windows as the operating system of its Industrial PCs, Beckhoff focused on the convergence of the worlds of IT and automation at a very early stage, thus satisfying the prerequisites for Operation Technology (OT). OT, meaning the production-oriented control of the operational processes of all production resources in the intelligent factory, networks the automation devices with the classic IT data processing including cloud communication. Beckhoff's technology is based on IT standards and has the necessary openness to implement intelligent production concepts according to Industrie 4.0.
Plastics machine manufacturers benefit from the continuous increase in the performance of PC processors: shorter sampling times are already increasing the quality of the end product today and will be the requirement for the realization of self-learning machines in the future. The possibility, for example, to completely simulate an injection molding machine in the virtual design process saves time during development and commissioning.