Mechatronics Solution Reduces Configuration Time and Costs

EPLAN Software & Services LLC (Farmington Hills, MI) recently announced a new version of its EPLAN Engineering Center One (EEC One), the mechatronics-centric solution in its suite of engineering software solutions for such diverse industries as automotive, electric panel design, machine tool, oil & gas, power generation, rail systems, and steel and metal. EEC One is intended to reduce configuration time and costs by providing structured access and information exchange across engineering disciplines ranging from electrical CAE to MCAD, and from mechanical engineering to plant engineering. Key new features include additional multilingual functionality and tighter integration into the company’s EPLAN Platform.

EEC One now has multilingual functionality, which should improved interaction for automation on an international stage. Image courtesy of EPLAN Software & Services LLC.

The company’s flagship technology, EPLAN Platform provides the core functions required in electrical CAE, electrical control, instrumentation and control systems, as well as in fluid and EMSR (engineering and managing software requirements) engineering. The EPLAN Platform is described as serving as the shared development platform for the seamless and direct data exchange between different engineering disciplines in the EPLAN product portfolio, which comprises applications for electrical design engineering, fluid power control systems design engineering software, instrumentation and control design, and wire harness design. Additionally, EPLAN Platform technology interfaces with major mechanical design and third-party enterprise systems.

EEC One integrates with the EPLAN Platform technology and, says the developer, is a “control center” that builds bridges between electrical, mechanical, and control engineering and documentation. A modular system and control system, EEC One enables users to manage different variants in mechanical and plant engineering while providing structured access to all the relevant information on machinery, plants, and systems.

EEC One communicates with, but does not affect the operation of, your mechanical CAD environments, PLC control systems, and electrical CAE tools. Yet, it enables you to divide data generated by those applications that pertains to every machine and every planned product into functional modules. The modules contain mechatronics components that possess defined, proven, and tested functions; i.e., each component provides the necessary discipline-specific information (mechanical, electrical, fluid power, software, etc.). Consequently, if you are planning a new plant, these components can form the foundation for compiling all of the required information for a machine or system.

From EEC One’s centralized, interdisciplinary configuration data, all of the records required for production and documentation can be generated on an order-specific basis. The system is said to generate all of the required project documentation such as the design drawing, the appropriate schematic, the fluid schematic, sensor/actuator lists, and the PLC programming. Order-specific costs, which were once generated manually, EEC One generates automatically.

The latest version of EEC One extends language support from German and English to four additional languages, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. With EEC One working in conjunction with the EPLAN Platform, configuration engineers can now generate projects, schematics, and fluid plans in their own language automatically.

Additionally, the new version of EEC One generates schematics in compliance with IEC standards and ladder technology. EEC One settings allow for simple switching between IEC and ladder views, enabling different global markets to be served from a single data source.

In the future, says EPLAN, users will be able to access the parts database within the EPLAN Platform, directly from EEC One. Selected parts and their properties can be adopted directly and then be used for further automation purposes.

For further details on EEC One and EPLAN Platform, go to EPLAN.

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Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.