Safety and simplicity travel together with Beckhoff controllers
Online retail volumes keep climbing, New Zealand distribution centres keep expanding, and the conveyor systems tying it all together must be fast, modular and safe at the same time. Beckhoff’s EP741x motor-driven roller (MDR) range combines manufacturer-independent motor control with modular installation and optional integrated TwinSafe safety.
“Traditionally, meeting emergency-stop requirements meant shutting down power to an entire line,” says Beckhoff national sales manager Steve Rush.
“With networked safe torque off, we can isolate just the motor power stage. Control electronics and diagnostics stay live, and goods elsewhere on the line keep moving. It’s a genuine industry first for MDR controllers.”
MDR conveyors remain the workhorse of zone-based material flow. Rush says longer, more complex networks expose the limits of older architectures, including slower responses, tangled wiring and functional safety designs that force a choice between protecting people and keeping product moving.
Safety without sacrificing uptime
In conjunction with an EtherCAT Master and TwinSafe Logic controller, the EP7412-9071 and EP7414-9071 provide networked safe torque off via FailSafe over EtherCAT (FSoE). The motor power stage is safely isolated while the control electronics remain live, keeping diagnostics, input states and motor data visible.
FSoE allows individual safety zones to be defined on one EtherCAT network without extra safety hardware or parallel wiring. Where the safety brief is simpler, the cost-optimised EP7412-0071 and EP7414-0071 omit the integrated safety function, so integrators specify only what the application needs.
Built for the way lines actually run
The EP741x range belongs to Beckhoff’s EtherCAT box family and provides sensorless control of 24V and 48V brushless direct current (BLDC) roller motors from any manufacturer. Rush says that independence simplifies engineering and lightens spare-parts holdings.
Modules come as a two-channel EP7412 or compact four-channel EP7414, each with or without integrated TwinSafe safety.
They are fully cascadable, IP54 rated and use built-in power and EtherCAT cables with standard M8 connectors and L-coded M12 connectors rated to 16A.
“Box-to-box daisy-chaining removes expensive patch leads, cuts wiring errors and can reduce installation time by as much as half,” Rush says. “A slim profile mounts inside the conveyor rail, so there is no need for a local control cabinet along the line.”
For longer runs or heavier-duty set-ups, Rush says stepping up to a 48V architecture pays real dividends. Because current is halved for the same power output, cable losses shrink accordingly, meaning thinner, more economical cabling can feed a greater number of motors from a single supply, even across longer distances.
“Crucially, this jump in voltage doesn’t come at the cost of simplicity. Output voltage is configurable, so 24V motors can run on the 48V supply, which is still comfortably under the 60V DC safety extra-low voltage threshold,” Rush says.
“Add to this a built-in safeguard that tracks motor strain in real time to prevent overheating, along with two extra digital inputs or outputs per channel for connecting light barriers or actuators, and the case for 48V becomes hard to ignore.”
Communication is handled via EtherCAT, which delivers near-instant updates and keeps devices tightly synchronised, even across large, sprawling networks with multiple branches.
Because the controllers follow the industry-standard DS402 drive profile, they integrate smoothly with TwinCAT or other compatible control systems, without the need for custom set-up work.
A practical step for local operations
“This is about practical flexibility for the people who specify, install and run these systems,” says Beckhoff support engineer Ridvan Solimov.
“Fewer failure points, and a safety approach that doesn’t tax throughput. That’s what local operations need more of.”
Solimov says the mix of modularity, lean cabling and integrated safety is increasingly important as capacity pressure in e-commerce and distribution shows no sign of easing.
“The flexibility of the Beckhoff platform means we can deliver the right solution regardless of project complexity. Beckhoff’s local presence and support structure give us the confidence to commit to our customers, and their reliability of delivery means we can match that reliability ourselves,” says Automate-X chief operating officer Cameron Farrar.
As New Zealand’s distribution centres continue to scale, Solimov says the systems behind them need to scale smartly too. For operations weighing up their next conveyor upgrade, he says the EP741x range is worth a closer look.
Sponsored content: For more information phone +64 9 281 2736, email info@beckhoff.co.nz or visit www.beckhoff.com.