Servo drives: Kollmorgen VS Emerson VS Beckhoff

[busarider29]

I have quotes coming in soon for drives from these manufacturers for our drives/motors for an upcoming project (Kollmorgen, Emerson, Beckhoff). Can anyone provide some opinions/reviews for me with their experience with any of them? Ease of use, integration, programming, etc. Control system will be a Beckhoff controller with Ethercat as the comms bus.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Steve Bailey]

None of those companies would remain in business long if they didn't make decent products. Ease of use is highly subjective. What is clear and straightforward to me may seem obscure and dense to you.
In my opinion, a better yardstick is the quality of local support after you've purchased the product. Will there be someone available to answer your questions as you try to integrate the drive into your system? Are you comfortable with the people you've been dealing with so far? Will they be the people who support you after the sale? If not, have you been introduced to the support team? I emphasize local support because you never know when you might need someone to come in and look over your shoulder as you work your way through the learning curve. It is always easier to get someone who can drive to your site than someone who has to get on an airplane to get to you.
Having said all that, I would expect that a Beckhoff servo would be easier to integrate into a Beckhoff control system than either of the others. Furthermore, with a larger order you might be able to leverage additional free service from the supplier.
On top of that, consider how easy it will be to integrate this new system into what is already in your facility. If your maintenance techs are already familiar with one of the brands, that is a point in favor of that brand as long as the experience has been positive.

 

[kolyur]

I don't have much to add but I'd like to hear the result of your decision and how it works out. We've been investigating Beckhoff controllers and servo drives over EtherCAT, it seems to be a well integrated solution. I like the idea that all the servo parameters are stored in the controller so if the drive croaks it's a simple pull and replace (this is what we were told, anyway).

I'm guessing you're looking at the Kollmorgen AKD drives since they have EtherCAT. We've been using the standalone positioning AKD drives and AKM motors for several years now. They are very solid units--we have some attached to linear actuators in a high force/shock load application and they perform much better than the AB Ultra 3000 drives that they replaced.

 

[rblunt]

I don't think you would go wrong using Beckhoff. I was very inexperienced with servodrives even after 10 years or so of programming PLCs, and Beckhoff is now my only platform, and imho very slick and easy to use.

They have never failed on sizing something for us properly, and the support is pretty good.

 

[CharlesM]

I have used 30+ axis of Beckhoff over the past year. I am using their controller and the AX5000 drives. Learning the Beckhoff controller is the hard part the drives and motors are very easy. I am using the one cable feedback and integrated safety which i think makes it even better. My only complaint on the drives are the connectors on the bottom of the drive are very cheap. These have been some problems because my guys had to remove the connectors to run them through the enclosure. I have not had to replace any drives but when i start a new machine up i can load everything up in 10-15 minutes which is very good.

I have other machines that i have used Yasakawa drives and motors over Ethercat. They are a very good quality but you don't get everything from the drive like you do with the Beckhoff setup. So keep that in mind.

I have not used Kollmorgen but I have been told they make some of the Beckhoff drives and motors. I think the new stuff is Beckhoff but the older and larger stuff is Kollmorgen.

 

[BAJ]

I can't help you with Beckhoff or EtherCAT. I do know Kollmorgen is a solid company, I've been using their products for over 20 years. I have integrated 50+ AKDs on Ethernet/IP with A-B PLCs. Their Add-On instruction libraries mimic A-B's motion commands and make the programming easy to implement and for maintenance to troubleshoot. The Kollmorgen drives have outstanding tuning tools (including Bode plots), and can show simulated results for tuning changes. We use them for all axis requiring high-performance. You can also run them off 115vac single phase, which has come in handy on several projects.

Given you have a Beckhoff controller that may be the way to go assuming they have a good tight integration.

 

[Archie]

I have been told that Kollmorgen used to make the servo drives for Beckhoff. I have used both Beckhoff drives and Kollmorgen over EtherCAT with Beckhoff controllers and TwinCAT. They both integrated nearly the same and both work just as well as one another.

 

[busarider29]

The Beckhoff controller will be new for us. We were strictly AB but I coerced my boss into letting me try out a Beckhoff controlled machine with the next project. So, that is the primary reason for including the Beckhoff drives into the deliberations. However, if integrating either Emerson or Kollmorgen is equally as painless, then we have no objections with going with any of them. Most of our drives around the plant are either Emerson or AB, with just a couple old PacSci's (now Kollmorgen). I saw no reason to include AB into the discussions since this is a Beckhoff controller with EtherCAT and AB doesn't support EtherCAT with their devices, and no reason to introduce another comms protocol (SERCOS) into the system when I don't have to.

As far as local support, the Emerson drives we probably have the most local support from what I can tell. My Beckhoff contacts though have been quick with email and phone so far and he's about an hour drive away, plus another guy on the other side of the state (3 hours). Still, we are a small company so if the big boys here local like GM and Nexteer need any of their support, we are getting pushed to the backburner anyway. I would guess that both of those companies are probably heavy into AB products with a little bit of everything else maybe. There's a big GM plant and Nexteer plant just a few miles from us.

My sales contact for Beckhoff replied back that they don't have a motor that meets our requirements so if its Beckhoff drives that we go with, the drives will be paired with Kollmorgen motors. I'd prefer to keep the motors and drives from the same manufacturer instead of mixing them, but some of you said that Kollmorgen used to make the Beckhoff stuff?? Does anyone have opinions on going that route with Beckhoff drives paired with Kollmorgen motors?

-Don

 

[Archie]

About a year ago I did a system that consisted of a CX5020, a set of 2 axis Beckhoff servo drives (4 axis), and a KollMorgen drive. All of the drives mapped easily in System Manager. In the PLC program, they all programmed exactly the same using motion control function blocks.

Going from AB to TwinCAT will be a little bit of a learning curve. Once you learn to use the full extent of TwinCAT, you will feel like the AB stuff is limited and difficult to program complex tasks. The speed of TwinCAT and EtherCAT is significantly faster. You can do sub-millisecond scan rates.

I recently saw some information where Beckhoff will be releasing an Ethernet/IP scanner(master) for TwinCAT 3 (TF6281). This should mean that TwinCAT can be used with Ethernet/IP devices as well as EtherCAT devices.