Description:

The BACHMANN MP226/EW​ is a versatile and high-performance CPU processor and communication module manufactured by BACHMANN Electronic GmbH, a leading Austrian specialist in industrial automation, particularly renowned in the wind energy sector . It serves as a core control unit within BACHMANN’s modular automation systems, designed to execute data processing, control logic, communication, and monitoring tasks in demanding industrial environments . This module forms the intelligent brain for distributed I/O stations, providing reliable and efficient control for a wide range of applications from renewable energy to machine building.

Application Scenarios:

On a remote offshore wind farm in the North Sea, maintaining turbine availability is paramount. Each turbine’s control system relies on a rugged, reliable computing core to manage pitch control, yaw drives, condition monitoring sensors, and grid connection logic. The existing control modules in some older turbines were struggling with the computational load of modern predictive maintenance algorithms and secure remote communications, leading to increased downtime for manual checks. The operator initiated a control cabinet upgrade program, standardizing on the BACHMANN MP226/EW​ module. Its robust design, capable of operating in wide temperature ranges and resisting vibration, was ideal for the harsh offshore environment. More importantly, its support for the VxWorks real-time operating system and programming via BACHMANN’s SolutionCenter software in C/C++ allowed engineers to implement complex condition-based monitoring algorithms directly on the turbine . This enabled real-time analysis of vibration and temperature data, predicting component failures weeks in advance. The site manager reported, “Deploying the MP226/EW​ was a game-changer. We moved from scheduled maintenance to predictive maintenance. The module’s processing power lets us run advanced analytics at the edge, reducing unplanned outages by over 30% and significantly cutting operational costs.” This highlights the module’s value in solving challenges related to harsh environment operation, computational capability at the network edge, and enabling advanced Industrial IoT (IIoT) strategies.