PLCopen

PLCopen is an independent organization providing efficiency in industrial automation based on the needs of users. Its members, representing various industries, focus on harmonization of control programming, and application and interfacing engineering. Founded in 1992, PLCopen members have concentrated on technical specifications around IEC 61131-3, creating specifications and implementations in order to reduce cost in industrial engineering. The outcome for example is standardized libraries for different application fields, harmonized language conformity levels and engineering interfaces for exchange. Experts of the PLCopen members are organized in technical committees and together with end users define such open standards.

Position to OPC UA

The organizations PLCopen and OPC Foundation have joined forces to provide solutions based on the OPC UA technology for all levels of automation.

Using the OPC UA communication as standard for the industrial environment will lead in many sectors of the industries to a completely new form of information exchange: if an industry sector has defined a specific profile e.g. a data structure or a function block, then the question of secure and efficient data exchange as well as the reusability of the visualization objects is already solved. With the combination of PLCopen and OPC UA, an additional level of interoperability is standardized on top of IEC61131-3 and industrial control.
No matter what new initiatives like Industry 4.0, Smart Factories, industrial IoT or other will demand, the current solutions can fulfill already most demands, and with the extensions even the most demanding requirements will be able to be fulfilled with standard specifications, tools, and implementations. Communication has never been so easy as long as one is on the right track: PLCopen and OPC UA.

Benefits
OPC and PLCopen collaboration means that OPC UA can be implemented in an environment that features the well-known IEC 61131-3 programming standard from PLCopen.
This results in the consistent use of OPC UA components.

Videos

• See here: OPC UA & PLCopen Collaboration in 4min (short overview)
• See here: OPC UA & PLCopen Collaboration in 15min (more details)

Success stories

• Download here: Water Treatment solution with PLCopen OPC UA Client for IEC61131-3
• Download here: Smart meter solution with PLCopen OPC UA Client for IEC61131-3