Poppe + Potthoff is a group company specializing in technology R&D and product manufacturing in the high-pressure sector. The company develops and manufactures advanced technical products for the automotive industry, special vehicle industry, marine industry, and more.

Xinmai provides localized ARM+Codesys customization.

At its Nordhausen plant, Poppe + Potthoff develops test systems for burst testing, autofrettage, pulsation testing, and rotary bending fatigue experiments. These systems require flexible test programs, not only needing to perform tests under linear and constant pressure but also capable of burst pressure testing under linear gas flow. Due to the unique characteristics of the test objects and pipelines, the design of this test system presented special requirements.

Previously, the hydraulic power units used by Poppe + Potthoff Maschinenbau GmbH were manufactured by other companies. However, traditional equipment could no longer meet their system requirements. The manufacturer decided to collaborate with Eaton to develop a new in-house hydraulic power unit. This unit features a complete control solution provided by Eaton and uses two pressure intensifiers to generate high pressure. Precise adjustment of these pressure intensifiers is crucial. The key component for accurately controlling the pressure intensifiers, and thereby the test pressure, is the proportional control valve. The proportional valves in this test system are connected to the PLC via CANopen. Poppe + Potthoff selected Eaton's modular XC200 as the PLC. The integrated Ethernet interface allows direct connection of the PLC to National Instruments LabVIEW and the network, eliminating the need for MPI or PPI converters as was previously the case. Furthermore, the CODESYS-based software (SW-XSoft-CODESYS-2) and the extensive functions of the closed-loop control library enable faster and more convenient programming and commissioning than before. Eaton's closed-loop control library contains approximately 120 function blocks, assisting developers by providing pre-tested closed-loop control function blocks, thus simplifying development. This allows for simple and rapid creation of various application solutions by combining standard function blocks. The Human-Machine Interface (HMI), created through the XSoft-CODESYS target visualization view, displays all important parameters at a glance, significantly simplifying the commissioning process and providing optimized functionality for the end-user.