"With Industry 4.0, all participants in the automation system release their static connections in order to exchange data dynamically across systems and company boundaries. Only in this way will it be possible to offer products competitively on the international markets in the long term," Hans-Jürgen Koch, Executive Vice President Industry Management and Automation at Phoenix Contact, is convinced. With this in mind, the company is now setting the course for the control technology of tomorrow - PLCnext Technology. The upcoming solution allows parallel programming based on established software tools such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, Matlab Simulink and PC Worx.

Other control system manufacturers are now taking a similar approach - but, according to Koch: "What is unique about our approach is the handling of the different program codes. Functions according to IEC 61131-3, routines from C/C++, C# or Matlab Simulink can be combined flexibly and at will, whereby the exchanged data is always synchronized and available to the different applications. This makes it possible, for example, to create 'encapsulated' function blocks in a high-level language, via which certain technology functions - as part of a mechatronic unit - are permanently executed, while other application-specific functions can be individually adapted in parallel in the PLC programming of PC Worx.

All programs running on the control platform exchange information with each other and with the communication interfaces via a common application layer, which is part of the operating system. This is also where apps from technology libraries or third-party providers are integrated via standardized interfaces. According to Koch, the open architecture of the operating system - using the development environment - allows the creation of a developer community for PLCnext. The resulting program/function modules are interchangeable and can be integrated almost like apps via download. The 'Proficloud' from Phoenix Contact will act as a platform for the exchange and acquisition of such functions.

For programming in accordance with IEC 61131-3, there is also a new, adaptive engineering platform, 'PC Worx Engineer', which is free of charge in the basic version. Users can then purchase extension modules individually and use these function add-ins to create their own customized software. The existing runtime system of the PLC application will not change initially. "However, PLCnext Technology allows other programs to be executed alongside the classic PLC application, which can also influence the process data," explains Koch, adding: "For this reason, the integrated scheduler of the PLC runtime has been replaced by a new cross-application mechanism."

In theory, no new hardware is required for PLCnext technology. "However, we have decided to introduce this technology on products that are undergoing a technology update at the same time. At Hannover Messe 2017, we will therefore be presenting a new Axiocontrol CPU that offers maximum CPU performance in the smallest possible space." Safety and HMI are also deeply integrated into the platform, and motion control is not a technological problem either. "However, we have pushed the latter to the back of the roadmap due to the many other challenges," says Koch.

PLCnext will then be available across the breadth of Phoenix Contact's controller portfolio from 2018. Next year, the Blomberg-based company will launch an 'early adaptor program' to enable interested users to gain experience with the diverse options of this platform. "Companies that would like to contribute useful apps to this platform are also particularly welcome," emphasizes Koch in this context. This is also the fundamentally new aspect of the business idea: "It is not just the PLC manufacturer that extends the functionality of the controller, but also third parties - for example a community, as we know it from the Linux and other software worlds."