Please tell us a little bit about Beckhoff, and why you're here at the conference today.
We are Beckhoff Automation. We're owned by Hans Beckhoff and based out of Berlin, Germany (about an hour and a half from Hanover).
We are a medium-sized controls company. All of our activity is based on PC control technology, so we use a software that sits underneath Windows and gives us very easy connectivity up to the cloud.
We're at PPMA because it's focused around the packing industry, and we have a lot of customers within that area. Quite a few of those customers are here today as well! So, we need to show off our packaging equipment and what more we can do for them. We have a number of unique products that would work well for them - things like our XTS (eXtended Transport System) and our compact drives.
As well as our new packaging devices, we are also focusing in on Industry 4.0 and cloud computing with our PC based control systems.
What makes you unique in the marketplace?
We're unique in the marketplace with our PC control. It gives us instant connectivity to cloud computing and to Industry 4.0. It allows us to run very simple machines, but also very high speed machines. Our XTS is running control loops of around 250 microseconds.
What do you hope to get out of PPMA?
PPMA gives us new leads. It allows us to network with new customers, and also allows us to show our new offerings to current customers as well.