Beckhoff Automation, which has offices located in North America, has developed a newer version of its EtherCAT, the EtherCAT P, which was developed to establish One Cable Automation (OCA) across the field level. The EtherCAT P combines the EtherCAT communication with 24 V power for the system and peripherals in an Ethernet cable.
With EtherCAT P, the US and UP currents are directly fed into the wires of the 100 Mbit/s line, streamlining network and power architectures. The EtherCAT P is designed to be a suitable protocol for sensors, actuators and measurement technology components with benefits for connecting small input/output (I/O) stations in the terminal box, as well as for distributed I/O components. The EtherCAT P system is also designed to be suitable for ac and dc motors, actuators, valve terminals and sensors such as proximity switches, light barriers or rotary encoders.