EtherCAT Drives

Take a quick look at KEB’s next generation drive products and it is easy to see that KEB has doubled down on EtherCAT.

All of KEB’s next generation drives feature EtherCAT communication front and center. This is not to say that KEB won’t continue to offer the many different communication protocols we have historically supported – but EtherCAT is the standard. Even beyond drives, KEB’s remote I/O, embedded controllers and industrial PCs also feature EtherCAT.

EtherCAT is an industrial ethernet fieldbus managed by the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) and has been growing rapidly in acceptance and installed nodes. From a philosophical standpoint, KEB and EtherCAT are a perfect match.

First, EtherCAT offers excellent real-time performance. KEB drives really rise to the top in difficult applications like spinning a high speed motor 40,000 RPM or synchronizing multiple servo axes on a printing press. Second, EtherCAT is an open technology with many vendor and user members. KEB has always adopted open technology and does not push closed proprietary protocols. Finally, EtherCAT offers great value (performance vs. cost). Similarly, KEB offers great value and has a wide range of drive platforms that can be optimally selected for a particular application.

Below is a product grid showing KEB’s EtherCAT drives. KEB has a full drive product where others might fall short: open loop drives, 208V drives, high power drives, liquid-cooled drives, multi axis drives and more.

• G6 – Open Loop VFD
• S6 – Servo Drive
• F5 – High Performance VFD
• F6-K – EtherCAT Drive
• H6 – Multi-Axis Drive

Do you have an application that requires an EtherCAT drive? Contact a KEB application engineer to discuss today.