Industrial Ethernet
Toyota opts for Ethercat
At the Hannover Messe, Toyota Motor Corporation announced that the Japanese car manufacturer has opted for Ethercat as its industrial Ethernet technology and intends to use it in its new factories around the world.
During the press briefing on April 26 in Hanover, Morihiko Ohkura, General Manager of the Production Engineering Innovation Division at Toyota Motor Corporation, explained at the Ethercat Technology Group booth: "We have conducted extensive analysis and evaluation to compare various Industrial Ethernet technologies and are convinced that the performance, determinism, ease of cabling and openness of Ethercat best meet Toyota's needs to further develop production systems within the Industrial IoT concept."
Ohkura continues: "In order to smoothly integrate the new IoT concept into our factories, it is important that we can obtain the necessary components in a timely manner. For this reason, we are encouraging our suppliers to provide high-quality Ethercat components at competitive prices. In March 2016, I already made an announcement in Japan to inform local suppliers. Now I would like to take the opportunity at Hannover Messe to communicate our plan to suppliers around the world." Specifically, Toyota is currently planning new factories in China (expected start of production in 2017), Malaysia and Mexico.
Last but not least, Ohkura emphasized that Toyota is ready to take an active role within the Ethercat Technology Group: "I expect the ETG to support us in becoming one of the leading Ethercat users in our industry."
Ethercat P also a component of the Toyota strategy
The decision to use Ethercat as the standard throughout also takes Ethercat P into account. This is the latest extension of the technology with the aim of combining Ethercat communication with the system and peripheral voltage on one line. Ethercat P also supports power supply forwarding via the nodes.
Ethercat P was developed by Beckhoff Automation as an extension of Ethercat and presented at the last SPS IPC Drives. The ETG is now in the process of expanding the existing product specification into a technology specification.
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