Nowadays the choice of a suitable hardware platform for a machine control is not an ever lasting decision and change over time can be needed. There may be many different reasons for such a change in controller platform. Sometimes, economical considerations are decisive for instance to move from a PC-based controller platform to an embedded version: after a number of machines of the same series the machine becomes more a commodity and a customized embedded controller can be a more economical hardware solution for the future.
This probable change make it for the machine manufacturer very important to have an software application which is hardware independent and which flexibility supports the hardware change. For the control supplier it should be part of the customer orientation to supply its products with standardized programming tools.
New control concepts – fit for change
As a partner of mechanical engineering who recognizes and implements trends at an early stage, ECKELMANN AG operates in all controller solutions (CNC, PLC, motion control) with different hardware platforms that have been developed and manufactured by ECKELMANN AG: PC-based, standard embedded controllers as well as completely customized hardware. Own software libraries are available for the three field of application CNC, PLC and motion control which can be used in an identical way on all mentioned hardware systems.
The typical controller functions of the three software libraries CNC, PLC and motion control can be called by the user in the form of function blocks which are part of the IEC 61131-3 programming tool CoDeSys. The support of such a software standard offers a variety of advantages to programmers and end users who mainly benefit from the broad testing and quick further development of these programming standards. Within the meaning of the above-mentioned strategy of a platform-independent controller concept, the use of a standard such as CoDeSys, moreover, creates the ideal pre-requisites for all types of program porting or for system change with simultaneous maintaining of the application software. Software standards offer safety and protect valuable investments made for the preparation of applications.