Few could argue that Ethernet technologies have been a real game changer for industrial fieldbuses - virtually every modern fieldbus utilises Ethernet now. The reason is simple, Ethernet delivers a breakthrough price/performance ratio that’s better than any propriety system by an order of magnitude.
As a result, those who adopt an ethernet based fieldbus will enjoy marked competitive advantages and, ultimately, better value in the longer term. The challenge then, moves to one of selecting the best technology, which can be hard given there are a plethora of industrial fieldbuses available.
To make matters more confusing, there’s often much marketing hype concerning fieldbus performance, and dubious claims made.
The choice of fieldbus is however an important decision, says Martin Rostan, the executive director of the EtherCAT Technology Group.
“The importance of the bus technology is often underrated. Most people think that the controller is the core of the control architecture, but in fact it’s the bus that determines if you can make use of that controller performance or not.”
Moreover, opting for the wrong standard means unnecessary cost, more difficult installations and ultimately, a loss of competitive advantage for the consumer.
So the lesson is clear, prospective users need to choose wisely. A detailed comparison between industrial fieldbuses is beyond the scope of this article, so we’ll concentrate on EtherCAT here, as it celebrates twenty years of existence this year.
That its sales have made significant inroads into a highly competitive market as shown in Figure 1, suggests it’s worth a second look.