Control cabinet-free design: The digital way

With the MX-System, Beckhoff has redefined the hardware architecture of machine automation so that it is control cabinet-free. The MX-System Designer now supplements this architecture with a planning tool that maps and technically evaluates the electrification of control cabinet-free machines in a structured manner ahead of time in the initial stages of the project phase. Machine builders can use it to model and validate the electrification of modular systems – from energy supply to connected peripherals.

The MX-System Designer is not a conventional product configurator. As such, it is not designed to support the selection of individual components but rather to facilitate structured planning of the electrical architecture of a machine. First, actuators, motors, and sensors are defined based on the machine function. This in turn defines drive module, I/O module, and communication interface requirements. After this, how these functions are distributed to baseplates and how the energy supply is structured are determined. Rather than a control cabinet, it is the entire electrification of the machine that is planned – from energy supply through power and I/O levels and beyond to connected peripherals.

A central planning component is the structured cable layout. The MX-System Designer assists with the selection of suitable pre-assembled cables and takes cable lengths, electrical properties, and topological relationships within the machine into account. As a result, the wiring is transparent and a technical evaluation can be carried out as early as the concept phase. In addition to structural planning, the MX-System Designer also supports technical evaluation of the system configuration. A technical evaluation and automatic checks of key aspects of the electrical system design can therefore be carried out as early as the planning stage.