Data communication between programmable logic controllers in the industrial distribution applications

Abstract

The impact of automation is visible in all areas of industry as well as in everyday life. Automation makes the process control more efficient, increases productivity of work, manufacturing quality, decreases manufacturing costs. Automation is still in development so that it could succeed in filling all requirements of today’s technical advance. For this reason we daily meet new questions about implementation of automation systems, their handling and expanding. One of these is the question of communication in industrial applications. In case of having more PLCs in one industrial network, it is necessary to solve their inter-communication. We should deal with this question in dependence on some facts, for example: used control system, used industrial network, transmission reliability requirements and so on. In this article we would like to present a solution for inter-communication between PLCs in one industrial network by S7 communication. S7 communication via Industrial Ethernet allows program-controlled communication using communication SFBs/FBs via configured S7 connections.