PC control runs Continental Tire plant

Proving that PC control is no longer a niche product, Continental’s tire plant in Timisoara is controlled by over 230 Beckhoff Industrial PCs running TwinCAT Motion and PLC control software. The plant has been running this way since 2000.

By Control Engineering Staff January 15, 2004

Proving that PC control is no longer a niche product, Continental’s tire plant in Timisoara, Romania, is controlled by over 230 Beckhoff Industrial PCs running TwinCAT Motion and PLC control software. The plant has been running this way since 2000.

The plant’s PC control setup uses the CX1000 solid state controller, which is DIN-rail mountable, runs Microsoft Windows CE or Windows XP embedded, and has no moving parts, making it suitable for certain traditional PLC applications. The control applications at the new plant involve high-speed coordinated motion control. Beckhoff Industrial PCs running TwinCAT PLC and motion software with no additional motion cards, PLCs or human-machine interfaces (HMIs) control over 250 Beckhoff servo axes and thousands of I/O points.

Continental reduced overall investment by 50% compared with using traditional PLC, HMI, and motion architectures, which still require industrial PCs for SCADA and HMI. Using this setup, Continental must stock only two types of PCs versus the traditional inventory of PLCs, HMIs, and motion cards.

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—David Greenfield, Editorial Director, Control Engineering, dgreenfield@reedbusiness.com