Press Release

With the extensive portfolio of robust and powerful Industrial PCs, fieldbus components and drive technology, TwinCAT automation software as well as the high-speed EtherCAT communication system and XFC, the high speed machine control system, Beckhoff provides an extensive range of solutions for all process steps in photovoltaic production.

The basis for process communication is the Ethernet-based fieldbus system EtherCAT, which is ideally suited for use in photovoltaic plants due to its flexible topology. Direct communication between the controller and the I/O signals – without special hardware – offers machine manufacturers, for example, the possibility to realise high-precision Motion Control with many axes, synchronised by means of EtherCAT distributed clocks. This leads to better control quality and faster machine processes.

Robotics as an integral component of the controller

With the extension of TwinCAT automation software by the “TwinCAT Kinematic Transformation” library, robots can now also be integrated seamlessly into the PC Control, which means that PLC, Motion Control, HMI and robotics run on just one Industrial PC. TwinCAT supports various parallel and serial kinematics, such as those used for pick-and-place tasks. Application examples in photovoltaic production are loading and unloading in automatic production lines for solar cells. The integration of robotics into the PC Control provides the user with a series of advantages. Not only are costs and engineering effort reduced, friction losses caused by the interaction of various CPUs are eliminated, as a result of which the performance and accuracy of the machine are increased.