TE Connectivity joins the EtherCAT Technology Group

1st September 2016

Nat Bowers

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TE Connectivity has revealed that it has joined the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG). EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is an open real-time Ethernet-based fieldbus system originally developed by Beckhoff, and the ETG is a global organisation in which OEMs, end users and technology providers join forces to support and promote further development of the technology.

According to Günter Feldmeier, global leader standards and consortia, Industrial business unit, TE, involvement in ETG is essential to drive TE’s industrial communication solutions: “EtherCAT’s role among industrial Ethernet providers is becoming more and more significant,” he said. “EtherCAT’s real-time performance, flexible topology and robustness is already being taken advantage of in many applications today. As a member in EtherCAT, we are now better positioned to support these and future applications with our infrastructure components and sensors.”

Reporting back from the EtherCAT Technical Committee Spring 2016 meeting several weeks ago, Michael Hilgner, manager consortia and standards, TE, was impressed by the group’s spirit and responsiveness to members’ suggestions: “I think TE’s involvement within the ETG will provide a lot of mutual benefits,” he noted. “There is a lot of interaction among the participants. Apart from developing and promoting the technology, the group offers its members implementation support and training and organises interoperability tests.”