Company: Beckhoff Automation

Website: www.beckhoff.com

Equipment Snapshot: The Beckhoff Automation booth (S-6302) will be the center of automation technology (AT) and IT convergence at Pack Expo 2017 in Las Vegas. The comprehensive Beckhoff system architecture for packaging machine automation promotes control hardware consolidation by advancing powerful PC-based control technology.

This approach takes the best from AT and IT, making the most powerful tools available to engineering teams in one universal environment. All the benefits from the early days of this effort remain from the integration of PLC, motion control and HMI, while adding other high value functions for robotics, safety, high-end measurement, condition monititoring, and of course, cloud connectivity and IoT.

North America’s premier packaging industry event, Pack Expo takes place September 25 – 27, 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Visitors to the Beckhoff booth will again be able to “BYOD”, using their own smartphones and tablets to connect with PC-based control demos, including a wall of IoT-enabled devices, plus articulated robot arms from Stäubli – using any mobile device with a web browser. Cloud connectivity will be a connecting thread throughout the Beckhoff booth and in machine builder booths, such as groninger USA (N-107).

Additional Smart Factory solutions will factor heavily throughout the Beckhoff booth, such as One Cable Automation via EtherCAT P, which integrates the previously separate power and signal lines into a single, standard 4-wire Ethernet cable. The latest motor and drive solutions with One Cable Technology (OCT) will also be shown in the form of demos and test stands for hands-on evaluation.