December 5, 2017 – Alicat Scientific’s line of mass flow, pressure and liquid instruments can now be configured with the EtherCAT protocol. Users of Beckhoff PLCs for industrial automation can now connect Alicat devices with the EtherCAT protocol.
In the chemical, medical, manufacturing and power industries, Alicat instruments monitor and control critical process parameters. Alicat devices are particularly well suited to vacuum coating processes, such as Atomic Layer Deposition and Chemical Vapor Deposition. All of the mass flow or pressure controller’s data, including: mass flow, volumetric flow, pressure, temperature, selected gas calibration, setpoint, and totalized flow can be output to a central PLC running a compatible automation protocol. Users may also change setpoint or gas selection, and issue other commands remotely.
EtherCAT joins Alicat’s offering of industrial automation protocol options, which also includes Modbus TCP/IP, Modbus-RTU, EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet and PROFIBUS communication options to fit new or existing systems. For easy drop-in replacement of older industrial units, Alicat instruments are made to fit the same space as common industry mass flow controllers.
