Abstract: This paper introduces the electrical control system of the FOCKE701 packaging machine, an ultra-high-speed hard-pack packaging unit with a production capacity of 1000 packs/min, manufactured by FOCKE GmbH of Germany, and analyzes its advanced features and stability. I. Introduction The FOCKE701 packaging machine is an ultra-high-speed hard-pack packaging unit with a production capacity of 1000 packs/min, manufactured by FOCKE GmbH of Germany, and is one of the most advanced cigarette manufacturing equipment in the world. Chinese cigarette manufacturers began importing this equipment in 2007, and their exploration, familiarization, and research into this equipment have gradually begun. This paper attempts to describe the characteristics of this equipment from the perspective of its electrical control system. II. Electrical Control System Architecture of the FOCKE701 Packaging Machine The FOCKE701 packaging machine mainly includes the following machines: a 701-type hard-pack flip-top packaging machine, a 741-type cigarette pack storage unit, a 752-type film wrapping machine, a 779-type boxing and rolling machine, a 542-type depalletizer, and two sets of 798-type automatic splicing machines. These seven machines are controlled by six controllers. The machines communicate via a PROFIBUS-DP bus, enabling coordinated operation between upstream and downstream machines. The diagram below shows the control system structure, primarily based on the 701 machine. The controller and bus system of the FOCKE 701 hard-pack flip-top packaging unit mainly use products from BECKHOFF. Its controller is a panel-mount IPC CP7503-1002-0021 with a real-time TwinCAT kernel. All input/output controls are expanded through a PCI slot module FC3102 with two PROFIBUS ports. Thirteen bus couplers (BK3150) and one IP1011 fieldbus terminal box with 8 inputs are connected to PROFIBUS 1. These are connected to the controller panel type IPC CP7503-1002-0021 of the 752 film packaging machine via a SIEMENS bus coupler 6ES7 158-0AD01-0XA0. The PCI slot module FC3102 of this industrial PC acts as the master station, communicating with the controller PC C6140 of the 798 automatic splicing machine. Two bus couplers (BK3150) are connected to PROFIBUS 2, connecting to the controllers of the 798 automatic splicing machine and the 542 depalletizer. Both controllers act as slave stations, each with a total communication capacity of 16 bytes input and 16 bytes output. The I/O module types used for expansion by the BK3150 bus couplers include digital, analog voltage and current inputs, RTD inputs, and PWM outputs. A distributed coprocessor BC9100 with 4DI/4DO functions, connected to the Ethernet port of the fourth slot of the industrial PC, is used to handle watchdog timer and machine maintenance prompts. Other Ethernet ports on the industrial PC enable communication with the workshop-level Ethernet network. III. Controller for the FOCKE701 Packaging Unit Taking the 701 model hard-pack flip-top packaging machine as an example, the controller uses two models of BECKHOFF IPCs: CP7503-1002-0021 and C6140. The CP7503-1002-0021 is a panel-mounted PC with an IP65 protection rating, including an Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor, 256MB DDR-RAM memory, and a 20GB IDE hard drive. The C6140 is a cabinet-embedded PC with an IP20 protection rating, including an Intel Celeron 2GHz processor, 256MB DDR-RAM memory, and a 40GB IDE hard drive. These two models of BECKHOFF IPCs, after installing TwinCAT software, can function as independent soft PLCs running in parallel on the same CPU, independent of the Windows system. This soft PLC can be decomposed into four multi-tasking PLCs, each containing up to four tasks, each with a defined execution cycle. The program is executed at a fixed cycle, with a minimum cycle time of 50 microseconds. This multi-tasking control system can meet control requirements with varying response speeds, and the PLC's operating speed continuously increases with IPC performance. The control program for the 701 hard-pack flip-top packaging machine and the 741 cigarette pack storage unit runs as two PLCs simultaneously on one IPC, including multiple tasks, with the fastest task execution cycle set to 2 milliseconds. IV. Bus System of the FOCKE701 Packaging Unit The bus system of the FOCKE701 packaging unit adopts a multi-layer bus, including PROFIBUS-DP and Ethernet. PROFIBUS-DP bus communication is used for high-speed data transmission at the field level; the master station periodically reads input information from the slave stations and periodically sends output information to them. The machine's detection and actuators all utilize the PROFIBUS-DP bus with a transmission rate of 12 Mbps, reaching the maximum speed limit of PROFIBUS-DP. The BECKHOFF IPC, equipped with a TwinCAT real-time core, lacks the traditional PLC input/output communication via the backplane, placing high demands on bus communication speed, especially for fast signals. Bus communication speed became a bottleneck for improving the overall operating speed of the system. However, with technological advancements, in the years following the successful development of the FOCKE701 packaging unit, BECKHOFF introduced a new bus system product, EtherCAT. EtherCAT is an Ethernet-based real-time communication bus with a refresh time of only 30 μs for 1000 distributed I/O data, including terminal module cycle time. Up to 1486 bytes of process data, equivalent to 12000 digital I/Os, can be exchanged through a single Ethernet frame in just 300 μs. EtherCAT technology matches communication technology with high-performance IPCs. This technology and related products can be applied to functional improvements to packaging units or the development of new products. The FOCKE701 packaging unit also uses Ethernet as its bus. This Ethernet fieldbus connects the BECKHOFF IPC and the intelligent component BC9100, using the standard TCP/IP protocol. The BC9100 handles tasks such as watchdog timer and machine maintenance prompts. V. Conclusion The above provides a detailed analysis of the structure of the FOCKE701 packaging unit's electrical control system. This system boasts an advanced structure and features speed and stability. It represents a successful case study of using an industrial PC as the controller and is worthy of reference and emulation by the domestic manufacturing industry.