26 n MACHINE BUILDING June 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com Why machine-builders are rethinking the need for control cabinets Control cabinets have long been the default way to house automation hardware. They protect components, centralise wiring and give engineers a familiar environment for installation, testing and maintenance. However, as machines have become more modular, more connected and more space-conscious, some machine-builders are starting to question whether the conventional cabinet is always the best fit. Control cabinets became the de facto standard for good reasons. Bringing power, control and communications hardware together in one enclosure makes it easier to protect sensitive electronics, organise wiring and create a clear point for testing and fault-finding. For many applications, that model still makes sense. The problem is that the control cabinet does more than protect components. It also shapes the way a machine is designed, assembled and commissioned. In a conventional machine, electrical installation and commissioning often happen relatively late, when the machine has already been assembled and access is less convenient. That can create a bottleneck, particularly for machinebuilders working with modular systems and looking to pre-assemble sections as much as possible before final installation. That is where cabinet-free automation starts to look interesting. The point is not simply to remove the enclosure. It is to redistribute control hardware so that the electrical architecture better reflects the mechanical architecture of the machine. If a machine is designed in modules, then the control concept can follow the same logic. This can bring several practical advantages. Mounting automation closer to sensors, drives and actuators can shorten cable runs and simplify installation. Removing or reducing the need for a separate cabinet can free up valuable floor space. It can also support a more modular build process, with machine sections assembled and tested in a self-contained way before they are brought together on site. None of this means control cabinets have suddenly become obsolete. In many applications, they remain the right choice. But where space is tight, modularity is important, or installation time is critical, machine-builders are increasingly exploring alternatives. Cabinet-free design in practice The clearest way to understand the value of cabinet-free automation is through real-life examples. One comes from Schirmer Maschinen, a German machine-builder working with largely standardised process modules configured into customer-specific systems. In that kind of environment, a central control cabinet had become increasingly at odds with the modular design philosophy of the machine. By moving control functions onto the steel frames of its machine modules, Schirmer has been able to support a more pluggable approach to wiring and simplify dismantling, transport and reassembly. It has found that processes that had previously taken around four days, can now be completed in around four hours. A second example comes from the intralogistics sector. At Bürkert’s Criesbach site in Germany, feeding heavy containers manually into an automated small parts warehouse had become both a bottleneck and an ergonomic issue. The challenge was to automate the process in a space too tight for a conventional robot cell with a bulky control cabinet. A local automation specialist, Ro-Ber Industrieroboter, developed a compact depalletising cell that receives pallets from AGVs, removes the containers with a gantry robot and then feeds them into the warehouse system. In this case, the cabinet-free architecture helped the machine to fit into the available space while also reducing cabling and simplifying the overall design. These examples highlight an important point. The value of cabinet-free automation is not really about removing the cabinet for its own sake. It is about giving machine-builders more freedom over how their machines are structured. In some cases, that means faster assembly and commissioning. In others, it means a smaller footprint or a layout that would otherwise have been difficult to achieve. This changes the design conversation. Instead of asking where the control cabinet should go, engineers can start by asking how to organise the machine itself. For builders under pressure to save space and support more modular production, that can lead to a different answer from the one they might once have assumed. n We are used to using cabinets to house automation hardware. But is there another way of doing things? Neil March of Beckhoff Automation explains why control cabinet-free automation is gaining attention, and examines its potential benefits. Schirmer has moved control functions onto the steel frames of its machine modules
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=