Beckhoff could not stop the corona crisis in 2021: 25 percent growth and 1.2 billion euros in sales are expected for the current year, as company boss Hans Beckhoff announced at the annual press conference. This is a big leap to sales in 2020, where Beckhoff only had to get by with 2 percent growth. The company's average growth rate from 2000 to date is 15 percent. Beckhoff seemed visibly satisfied when he presented these figures. He then revealed the secret of success: continuity. "In some cases, we still generate our sales with the same customers as we did 40 years ago," he explained. The fluctuation among employees is also very low. In addition, Beckhoff has founded another subsidiary, which is now fortieth - it recently started its service in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Another cornerstone of the company's success are the development departments, in which Beckhoff will continue to invest. 80 million euros went into R&D every year, 7 percent of sales. Nothing will change about that in the future.

MX-System should make control cabinets obsolete

Beckhoff also presented some products that would have been shown at the PLC. The MX system that Hans Beckhoff presented himself stood out. This is a uniform automation kit with which the traditional control cabinet can be completely replaced by modules in many applications. The system consists of a robust aluminum baseplate with protection class IP67 with integrated module slots that have EtherCAT for communication and an integrated power supply (protective extra-low voltages as well as 400 V AC and 600 V DC). In the largest expansion stage, a connected load of 400 V AC / 63 A is possible. Appropriate modules are available for connecting to the mains and for all other functions of a control cabinet.

For the field level, the modules in automation technology use connectors that have been tried and tested over many years. A system combination of baseplate and modules has a protection class of IP67 and the machine can be mounted directly. The system reduces the effort for the manufacturer, especially in the planning and installation phases. Integrated diagnostic functions reduce the complexity for the end user. This means that a modular control cabinet system with a high degree of protection is available that can be installed on the machine without any additional protective housing.