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The ARC Industry Forum in Orlando provided the right platform to discuss various strategies and new technologies that are driving digital transformation across industries. In a freewheeling interview, ARC’s Harry Forbes and Patrick (Pat) McCurdy, Vice President Industry Management and Automation USA, Phoenix Contact, spoke about the company’s new product, PLCnext, and its role in the Open Process Automation Forum and a few other topics. You can watch the interview here or on YouTube.
Understanding PLCnext Technology
Harry asked how the PLCnext product is classified. “Is it a PLC, a pack, or an edge controller?” Pat explained that it is described in three fundamental ways:
- First: It is an open, secure, reliable, scalable, control platform based on Linux that can be used for a variety of applications.
- Second: It is Industrial IoT ready. Customers are required to collect data, manipulate it, send it to a cloud either on-premise or commercial, and do further computations in the Cloud. So, PLCnext gives you a platform to easily do that.
- Third: It's really kind of a PLC re-imagined. You can rely on IEC 61131-3 programming or use other engineering tools, like Eclipse, Visual Studio, etc., and then access advanced computation capability on the device with high level languages.
Branching Out
Previously, Phoenix Contact was known for providing connectivity, network infrastructure, and power supply solutions. Harry asked “What made you branch into this area?”
“PLCs are not new for Phoenix Contact. We've had a PLC product for about 20 years, i.e. since the acquisition of KW software (a pioneer in IEC 61131-3) in the early 2000s,” said Pat. However, the company decided to focus its activities on Germany’s automotive market and their few US customers. Still, first and foremost, Phoenix is a connectivity company – it’s in their DNA.
“And I heard it recently said that if data is the oil of the 21st century, then connectivity is the gas station. So what do you expect from a gas station? Well you want something secure, you want something reliable, and you want it to be available. Those are all things that we really bring to all of our products, and I think it's a good basis and a good route also for something like PLCnext,” said Pat.
PLCnext's Role in the Open Process Automation Forum
During the ARC Industry Forum there were a lot of discussions on Open Process Automation, and in this context, PLCnext was mentioned. Harry asked him to explain this further.
Pat said that they really appreciate ExxonMobil's initiative around Open Process Automation. And when this idea was first presented to the industry and the community, it converged perfectly with the development of PLCnext. “And also our vision of having an open, scalable, reliable platform for customers to build their control architectures on.” Since then, Phoenix Contact and ExxonMobil have continued working together.
Focus on Vertical Industries
Phoenix Contact is a very broad market supplier to many industries. “So it's hard to kind of cage them into a few,” began Pat. But for the last 10 years, the company has focused on building domain expertise in some core vertical industries. He said that the focus has been on the four main pillars of industry:
- Electric power and T&D, wind and solar generation; and all the complexities around distributed power and distributed energy
- Process automation
- Factory automation
- Infrastructure
“And then we segment in each one a little bit where our expertise lies. But the main point was to build up really that domain expertise, so that we could provide more value to our customers, particularly around the area of automation and control,” said Pat.
New Technologies and Roadmaps
“We see a lot of different technologies being developed and coming into the market simultaneously in different industries and different sectors. What are the ones that are kind of top of mind at Phoenix Contact now?” asked Harry.
Pat responded that the roadmaps continue to be focused around areas that support kind of an open vision of automation. “One of the things that we're working on at the moment is the APL Standard, the advanced physical layer. So we really want to be part of that infrastructure as it evolves - to provide connectivity in the Ethernet realm down to the process field device,” he said. The company also continues to develop other products that are around its core areas of competence that include connectivity, and the infrastructure that goes along with networks and Ethernet in the industrial factory and the industrial space.