Draft:Beckhoff Automation
 | |
| Industry | Automation technology |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Verl, Germany |
| Revenue | € 1.17 billion |
Number of employees | 5,300 (as of march 2025) |
| Website | www.beckhoff.com |
Beckhoff Automation is a global leader in automation technology for industrial manufacturing, the process industry, the energy industry, the entertainment industry, and building automation.
The company develops and produces universal and industry-independent control and automation solutions based on the PC control approach and is part of the Beckhoff Group.
The company currently has 5,300 employees worldwide (as of March 2025). Beckhoff Automation achieved global sales of €1.17 billion in the 2024 financial year and is represented by its 41 subsidiaries and cooperation partners in over 75 countries worldwide.[1][2][3]
Company history
[edit]
Hans Beckhoff laid the foundation for Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG in 1980. Immediately after completing his physics degree, he began building control cabinets and developing microprocessor-based industrial electronics in the garage of Elektro Beckhoff, his parents’ electrical engineering company, thus founding the Beckhoff Industrial Electronics division – the third division of the Beckhoff Group – which was integrated into his parents’ company. In 1981, his father – company founder Arnold Beckhoff – passed away at the age of 56. His widow Elisabeth Beckhoff then handed over the company to her four children: Hans, Arnold, Marlies, and Michael. In 2005, Elektro Beckhoff GmbH was split into three independent companies: Elektro Beckhoff (electrical installation in buildings), Beckhoff Technik und Design GmbH (specialist electrical retailer), and Beckhoff Automation GmbH (automation technology). Today, the three companies form the Beckhoff Group.[4]
PC-based control technology
[edit]As early as 1986, Beckhoff elected to implement personal computers as the hardware platform for the controller, since PC technology had achieved adequate stability and performance at that point. PC technology was the most rapidly developing technology and has proven to be very reliable and stable over the years, with architectural components that have remained essentially unchanged since 1986. A controller needs hardware that is suitable for industrial use and an operating system, just like a PC for IT applications. In the early years, Microsoft DOS was used for this purpose. Real-time operation could be guaranteed with extensions developed by Beckhoff. This meant that PLC (Programmable Logic Control) and motion control could be run on a PC, together with visualization, as early as 1986.[5][6] In 1996, Beckhoff switched to Windows with the TwinCAT automation software. This remains unchanged to this day. As a pioneer in PC-based automation, Beckhoff has already set many milestones in the world of automation, including the first bus terminal (fieldbus technology in terminal block format) in 1995 – a new basic building block for automation technology that was launched in collaboration with WAGO.[7] The extensive range of fieldbus terminals available on the global automation market is still based on the original concept today. In 2003, Beckhoff Automation invented EtherCAT, the Industrial Ethernet technology (a real-time Ethernet fieldbus for data communication in industrial automation).[8] The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) was founded in the same year and made EtherCAT technology accessible to all device manufacturers worldwide.[9] EtherCAT has been an international IEC standard since 2007.
Data exchange standardization
[edit]The company is committed to standardizing data exchange on the factory floor. PC-based control technology from Beckhoff is therefore designed as an open system so that third-party components can also be integrated and systems from different manufacturers can be used together.[10][11]
Weblinks
[edit]- Website of Beckhoff Automation
References
[edit]- ^ "Webseite Beckhoff Automation". Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ Die Erfolgsfaktoren: Innovationen, Zuverlässigkeit und beste Betreuung. 2023. pp. 30–35.
- ^ "Geschäftsjahr 2024" (in German). Beckhoff Automation. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
- ^ „Das gibt es nicht einmal im KaDeWe“. 2023-10-28.
- ^ Christian Vilsbeck (2021), "„Wir sorgen für Wettbewerbsvorteile"", A&D, no. 11, pp. 38–42
- ^ Reinhard Kluger (2018), "In die Zukunft mit zündenden Ideen", Elektrotechnik, no. 7/8, p. 32
- ^ "25 Jahre I/O-Module von WAGO und Beckhoff". Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ "20 years of compatible, open EtherCAT communications", Industrial Ethernet Book, 2023-07-20
- ^ "EtherCAT Technology Group". EtherCAT Technology Group. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
A&D-Quelle22was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Beckhoff im Einsatz am IWF der Technischen Universität Berlin. 2009. p. 23. ISSN 1438-1125.