Generic Motion Control: Completely new approach for successful machine manufacturing in Scandinavia
The 2007 Scanautomatic Fair was dedicated to the topic of productivity. Discussions, seminars and workshops addressed the central question of how Sweden, as a country of high wages, can remain a successful location for production in the coming years and decades. In addition to a focus on exceptional education, it became clear that Sweden is ready for the next phase in the direction of "Lean Production". A pivotal aspect of this next phase will be increased implementation of robotics.

There remained no doubt that the only way for Scandinavian machine manufacturers to remain competitive on the world market is through technological leadership. This technological leadership must be characterized by maximum performance and maximum flexibility. Sales trends are moving toward complete production solutions that offer clear benefits to productivity, rather than individual machines.

This is exactly where "Generic Motion Control" from B&R comes in. Generic Motion Control is based on the assumption that the machines of the future will increasingly need to offer a combination of technologies such as controller, motion control, CNC and robotics. These technologies are already available today, but are offered on the market in isolated hardware and software products. When it comes to a combination of these products in one machine, manufacturers are confronted with too much complexity, too little compatibility, low performance and high costs. Generic Motion Control from B&R now offers total integration of the machine control using a harmonized software platform. For the machine manufacturer this means a huge increase in performance and flexibility, as well as considerable cost savings.
Scanautomatic System Prize also a success for POWERLINK
In this context, B&R was able to win over the distinguished jury, comprised of specialized journalists and representatives from the industry and universities. In addition to B&R, the 350 exhibitors also included system solutions from FESTO and BECKHOFF that were nominated for this prestigious prize. The selection of B&R's Generic Motion Control indirectly justified B&R's consistent implementation of POWERLINK. Once again, B&R demonstrated that it isn't the isolated technical highlights, but rather the integrated, holistic system solutions that provide the truly decisive advantages for the machine manufacturer