North American EtherCAT Test Center Issues First Conformance Test Certificate

The RMZ temperature controller from Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company, is the first EtherCAT device to pass conformance testing in the newly-opened North American EtherCAT Test Center (ETC) in Savage, Minn. (near Minneapolis). Watlow is a custom designer and manufacturer of industrial electric heaters, sensors and controllers with offices and manufacturing facilities around the world. Applications for Watlow products include semiconductor processing, energy processes, diesel, foodservice equipment, life sciences and others.

The North American EtherCAT Test Center was recently accredited by the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG), which shepherds the Industrial Ethernet fieldbus technology known as EtherCAT.  The certificate was issued during the 6th meeting of ETG’s Semiconductor Technical Working Group, hosted by Lam Research, Fremont, Calif. During the official test, the EtherCAT Conformance Test Tool is employed and further tests, such as interoperability and interface checks, are conducted.
 
Florian Häfele, who was onsite as the ETG representative, presented the certificate to Stan Breitlow, staff software engineer at Watlow. Häfele said, “Awarding the first North American ETC conformance test certificate to Watlow represents a significant kick-off, and stresses the importance of the new North American EtherCAT Test Center to the semiconductor and industrial equipment industries. This is also validation to the ETG that it was the right decision to accredit a test lab in North America.”

North America is home to many of the world’s biggest companies in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and the ETG expects growing demand for EtherCAT conformance tests from this industry well into the future, Häfele added. Manufacturers of EtherCAT devices also have the option to submit their products for testing at the other official ETCs in Germany, Japan and China.