PC Control withIntegrated Motion

PC-based control has become one of the fastest-growing automation solutions for the factory floor. Control engineers are quickly dropping their proprietary PLC boxes and replacing them with PC-based control systems to gain the benefits of open-systems architecture. Similar to the shift away from proprietary Wang and Sperry-Univac mainframe systems to PCs in the office, the shift on the factory floor is equally dramatic. The drivers of this migration are pure business benefits: cost-effective integration of off-the-shelf hardware and software solutions; lower overall system costs; control system design cycles cut in half; enterprise-wide connectivity; and easier-to-use systems.