Several companies with different EtherCAT devices participated in the EtherCAT
Technology Group’s (ETG) first EtherCAT Plug Fest of 2015. Participation in the
Plug Fest broke all records as 70 companies attended the event bringing with
them 12 different EtherCAT masters and 42 EtherCAT slaves for interoperability
testing.
The number of EtherCAT Slave Controller (ESC) manufacturers on site was
higher than ever and included TRINAMIC Motion Control, which also hosted the
event.
The high participation at the 2015 Spring European EtherCAT Plug Fest in
Hamburg, Germany is attributed to the rapidly increasing number of available
EtherCAT products. The EtherCAT Plug Fests are widely recommended as a highly
valuable platform to support the development processes of new EtherCAT devices.
With the five attending ESC manufacturers, the number of EtherCAT chips at a
Plug Fest was as high as ever before.
Dr Guido Beckmann, who attended the Plug Fest as the ETG expert,
explained that Plug Fests were particularly beneficial for EtherCAT devices in
development as the event offered a platform for manufacturer questions to be
answered, and necessary adjustments with regard to interoperability and
conformance to be made before the market launch.
In addition to the practical supervision of the interoperability tests,
EtherCAT experts from the ETG provided participants with support as well as information
about actual conformance topics, based on the experiences from the worldwide
EtherCAT Test Centers and direct feedback from the field.
In addition to the EtherCAT Plug Fests in Europe, the ETG conducts
similar events annually in Asia and North America.
BECKHOFF Automation is part of the EtherCAT Technology
Group.