Beckhoff to Showcase Cabinet-Free Automation at PPMA 2026

Automation and control technology specialist Beckhoff UK will exhibit at the PPMA Show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham from September 22 to 24, 2026. At Stand F40, the company will demonstrate technologies designed to help machine builders create compact, easily adaptable packaging machinery. A central focus will be the MX-System, a modular approach to cabinet-free automation that consolidates control, I/O, and drive technology on a robust baseplate. This plug-and-play architecture significantly simplifies machine installation and allows end users to reconfigure systems as production requirements evolve, eliminating the need for conventional control cabinets.

Flexible Transport and Drive Innovations
The exhibit will also feature Beckhoff’s flexible transport technologies, including a hygienic, stainless-steel version of the XTS linear transport system, which is ideal for washdown environments in the food and beverage sectors. Additionally, the XPlanar system will demonstrate contact-free product movement using magnetic levitation across planar tiles without fixed mechanical paths, allowing wear-free and noiseless movement in up to six degrees of freedom. Visitors can explore an expanding drive portfolio featuring the new AF1000 variable frequency drives and the compact AX1000 servo drives, which are available as single-axis or double-axis variants covering outputs up to 1,700 W at 400 V AC. A two-axis pick-and-place demonstration, developed with UK linear motion specialist HepcoMotion, will also integrate the latest motion control, industrial PC, and vision technologies.

Additional Context
This section provides technological and market background not explicitly detailed in the original release.

The packaging industry is increasingly moving toward high-mix, low-volume production, which requires machines to handle frequent format changes without extended downtime. Traditional machine architectures rely on massive, centralized electrical cabinets with complex point-to-point wiring that dictates fixed mechanical footprints and makes field upgrades difficult. By decentralizing the control architecture directly onto the machine frame via IP67-rated systems like the MX-System, overall machine footprints can be drastically reduced. Furthermore, advanced transport technologies enable software-based format changes without downtimes, treating products individually rather than relying on rigidly timed mechanical indexing—a critical advantage for building scalable and resource-efficient packaging lines.

Edited by Lekshman Ramdas, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

www.beckhoff.com