New North American headquarters outside Minneapolis and a training and sales center near Chicago are two signs that Beckhoff Automation LLC is growing and investing in the future. The company held open houses at its Savage, Minnesota headquarters this summer, and recently did the same for its Woodridge, Ill. sales center. The events let customers and partners see what’s new from this German maker of PC- and EtherCat-based automation and motion systems.
In suburban Chicago, the sales and training center will host educational and demonstration events for Beckhoff’s customers, who are equipment manufacturers and design engineering firms focused on packaging, warehouse/logistics, food and beverage, and other industries.
Beckhoff’s industrial customers benefit from the company’s entertainment-industry customers like Cirque du Soleil, who tend to push the boundaries of motion control technology, said Shane Novacek, Beckhoff marketing communications manager. Another example can be found in Terminal One of Singapore’s Changi Airport. The Kinetic Rain sculpture there uses a Beckhoff C6525 industrial PC to control 1,216 servo axes synchronously to designers’ specifications. The control system includes Beckhoff’s EtherCAT industrial Ethernet technology, TwinCAT automation software and compact EL7201 EtherCAT Terminals that function as servo drives.
On display in Chicago is a fraction of the company’s full product line, which encompasses a range components and system solutions for PLC, motion control, robotics, safety and measurement technology. Potential customers could see application demonstrations and new products at the SPS/IPC/Drives Show in Germany, and earlier in the year at PackExpo Las Vegas.
In Minnesota, the North American headquarters complex has more 44,500 square feet of combined office and warehouse space—more than triple the space of its previous facility. The new Beckhoff warehouse there measures more than 15,000 square feet, while the Industrial PC repair center is more than 1,660 square feet.
The new North American headquarters leverage Beckhoff‘s own hardware and software for advanced building automation. The building’s lighting, heating/cooling, ventilation and window facades are all automated via PC-based control to reduce energy consumption. “Daylight harvesting” to set light levels is a major part of the system, and the external environment is used for heating/cooling whenever possible.
The Beckhoff control platform communicates with the variety of devices used in today’s intelligent buildings. For example, DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) is used to connect the Beckhoff I/O system to light ballasts, MP Bus is used to connect to the variable air volume boxes, BACnet is integrated for the building’s boilers and rooftop units, SMTP is used to send maintenance personnel email alerts when needed and Ethernet TCP/IP is heavily utilized.
The $600 million global company operates in 60 countries and has been actively expanding to support growth and get closer to its customers. Offices in Ismir and Bursa, Turkey, for example, have seen significant growth since 2010, said Beckhoff President Graham Harris, and they currently employ 23 people (16 of whom are engineers) to support a rapidly expanding machine builder market there.
