November 19, 2008 – EtherCAT, the next generation Industrial Ethernet fieldbus continues to make great strides in motion control. To date, 40 different vendors have readily available or publicly announced high-performance EtherCAT servo drives. This support from drive vendors is clear evidence that EtherCAT has taken a leading role in motion control: no other Industrial Ethernet technology is represented by such a variety of products from so many drives vendors. Superior performance paired with cost efficiency and unparalleled topology flexibility are the decisive criteria for these drive vendors and their customers to select EtherCAT. With distributed clock mechanisms, EtherCAT also supports precise drive synchronization without special hardware in master devices.
Many motion control vendors have also decided to utilize EtherCAT as a system bus. Since EtherCAT was developed not just for motion, but with sensors and I/O in mind, it can replace several legacy fieldbus systems all at once.With support from 40 servo drive vendors from 13 countries, EtherCAT decisively leaves behind special motion control fieldbus systems that have been around for decades – EtherCAT is on its way to becoming the world’s leading motion control standard. Even more vendors are currently developing EtherCAT servo drives, but have yet to announce these new products publicly. EtherCAT sets new standards for real-time performance and topology flexibility, while meeting or undercutting traditional fieldbus cost levels.
An IEC and SEMI specification, EtherCAT features include high precision device synchronization, a cable redundancy option and a functional safety protocol (SIL3).The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) is an organization in which key user companies from various industries and leading automation suppliers join forces to support, promote and advance EtherCAT technology. With over 850 members from 44 countries, the EtherCAT Technology Group has become the largest organization in the world that is exclusively focused on Industrial Ethernet technologies. Founded in November 2003, it is also currently the fastest growing fieldbus organization.
