PLCs have been the heart of any automation system today. With the changing demands of the automation customers, these programmable logic controllers are expected to provide much higher functionalities then standard control functions. These functionalities and facilities are not restricted to the main controllers but are applicable to the complete control system as a whole.

Today, the customer is demanding not just a low cost system but also a cost effective system that ensures high MTBF for the complete system, minimum installation time and cost, high reliability, scalability, flexibility, modularity and future proof system to secure his investments.

The process information in the form of process parameters, alarms, breakdown analysis and system efficiency are on high demand. A monitoring system parallel to the production system is suitable but involves high cost in form of investment and maintenance. Hence the production control system is expected to take care of the same.

To summarise the customer need - a highly communicative Simple, Modern, Adaptive, Real Time (SMART) Automation System is the ideal solution for every automation requirement.

The Class 100 PLC series from Phoenix Contact is designed to meet all the above highlighted demands from today's customer. The controllers from Class 100 series and the complimentary product range from phoenix contact are made to provide the optimum solution for a commercially and technically efficient and SMART Automation system.

The Class 100 PLCs use the wide variety of IOs from the Phoenix Contact inline family, wether it's a standard digital or analog signal or a specialised, encoder input, stepper motor control signal, temperature input, strain gauge input, intrinsically safe signals, motor starters, serial (RS 232/485/422) communication modules, Fieldbus communication modules (Profibus, CAN bus, IO Link, AS-I, DALI, etc), S0 interface signals or even the functional safety signals, can be used directly with Class 100 controllers without the need of any converters. This ensures that the system will require less space, less time for installation and commissioning and flexibility to the customer to choose the technology of his choice.

All the Class 100 controllers from Phoenix Contact are equipped with an Ethernet interface and Interbus Master. These controllers supports up to 4096 IO system, with a real time processing speed of 90 micro seconds for 1K instructions; programmable with IEC 61131 standard software "PC WORX" provides a perfect platform for a scalable, modular and cost effective automation system.

Just having a standard Ethernet interface does not always solves the high information requirements of the user. Keeping these in mind numerous IT capabilities have been integrated in these power PLCs. The IT features like, freely configurable web server, FTP server, SNMP, SNTP, SMTP, DHCP, DNS, and OPC compatibility makes these controllers an ideal choice to fulfill all the modern requirements of the customer.

Having the choice of IO interface and the required IT capability is not all what customers' need. To address the basic requirement of installation ease and flexibility; the class 100 controllers support high degree of flexibility of use of IP 20 IO, IP 67 IO and wireless IO either on the same station or on distributed remote stations. This seamless integration of signals gives the system designer the required freedom to optimise his automation system.

Communication within the plant is not sufficient for most of the applications in infrastructure industry. These require remote communication option based on standard and available communication options and technologies. The Class 100 controller with integrated GSM/GPRS modem can be an ideal choice for the same. But other PLCs can also be used by using an external modem. All the PLCs being able to communicate remotely using the ODP server is an added advantage and hence Both broad band and GPRS communication can be used for the bidirectional communication with a remote site. Having all the required international approvals these class 100 PLCs can be used in most of the small and medium size application in all the industries like, ship building, building automation, machine building, regenerative energy, process, automotive, food, pharma, steel, water, material handling, etc. Automation is not always costly and complicated. On the contrary, make use of the system around the compact controllers of Class 100 to get started with automation quickly and effectively. Thanks to the many different function modules, implementing your very own ideal solution is easy. If required, you can also integrate web panels and network components. New to the system: Safety without a safety controller - now your solution will also be easily safe!

(Contact: Phoenix Contact (India) Pvt Ltd, Tel: 011-30262800, 30262822. Fax: 91-11-26383285. Email: info@phoenixcontact.co.in)