Ecosystem Connectivity with Phoenix Contact
Bridging the Gap in Industrial Automation
In today's fast-evolving industrial landscape, integrating legacy systems with modern automation tools is a significant challenge. Many industries often rely on technology that is decades old, which often lack the capability to interface with advanced digital platforms. This disconnect creates inefficiencies, limiting access to real-time data and inhibiting process optimization.
Engineering Industries eXcellence and Phoenix Contact provide a groundbreaking solution to a pervasive problem: the inability of legacy machinery to seamlessly interface with advanced digital platforms. Our custom application, Telegraf, built on Phoenix Contact’s PLCnext Technology platform, empowers industrial enterprises to overcome inefficiencies, unlock real-time data access and optimize processes.
Limitations of Traditional PLCs
Traditional programmable logic controllers (PLC), once revolutionary in their time, now face significant challenges in keeping pace with the demands of modern industrial environments. Their rigid architecture, designed for specific tasks, limits adaptability to new operational needs. As manufacturing processes evolve and become more dynamic, older PLCs often struggle to support diverse applications or integrate new machinery. This rigidity can lead to inefficiencies and higher operational costs as businesses attempt to retrofit outdated systems with modern solutions.
Another critical limitation is scalability. As industries embrace the complexity and variability of Industry 4.0, traditional PLCs often lack the ability to seamlessly adjust to fluctuations in production volume or complexity. Adapting older systems to handle new demands often requires extensive reconfiguration or even complete overhauls. These challenges not only strain resources but also risk disrupting operations, highlighting the need for innovative solutions that combine flexibility and scalability to meet the demands of modern manufacturing.
Blending Expertise: The Power of a Phoenix Contact and Engineering IndX Collaboration
The PLCnext Technology platform represents a new era in industrial automation, offering unmatched flexibility and openness for integrating modern IT solutions with legacy systems. As a fully open and modular ecosystem, PLCnext enables industries to streamline operations by closing the gap between Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) using a single, versatile hardware component. The platform's robust capabilities make it ideal for solving complex challenges, such as integrating outdated machinery with modern digital infrastructures, ensuring seamless data transfer and maintaining operational continuity.
Engineering Industries eXcellence’s custom application, Telegraf, further amplifies the capabilities of the PLCnext Technology platform. As the collector component of the TICK (Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor) stack from InfluxData®, our app enables centralized monitoring of PLCnext controllers, complete with historization and alerting features. Our application also functions as a data logger, logging open platform communication (OPC) data from PLCnext devices into an InfluxDB database. This innovative solution enables enterprises to extract and historize their process data, such as information from actuators and sensors, allowing for seamless integration with advanced analytics platforms. By logging OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) data into an InfluxDB historian, the application supports comprehensive data tracking and provides actionable insights to optimize industrial processes.
DHybrid: A Use Case for Energy Management Technology
DHybrid, an energy management and battery systems developer recognized for their expertise in renewable solutions, sought to optimize IT costs for their power supply installations. With a strong focus on shaping the future of energy systems, this company needed a solution to ensure efficiency across their operations. Our experts met this need by installing our custom Telegraf application on the latest version of the PLCnext Technology platform. In doing so, we reduced the number devices necessary to collect and process data coming from their monitoring systems at customer sites. The presence of the Telegraf application also eliminated the need for on-site Windows servers which were previously used as OPC UA servers, along with all associated maintenance, configuration, licensing and support costs. However, DHybrid could still continue to use their legacy PLCs with the Telegraf application now directly embedded for seamless data export and logging.
Engineering's Advantage
At Engineering Industries eXcellence, our mission is rooted in innovation that delivers real-world impact. Collaborations with software leaders like Phoenix Contact are integral to achieving this goal, as they align with our commitment to advancing industrial digital transformation. Through tailored software solutions like our Telegraf application, we enable organizations to overcome the limitations of traditional PLCs while unlocking new possibilities in connectivity and operational efficiency. We will continue empowering enterprises with cutting-edge tools and expertise to lead the charge in shaping a smarter, more connected future.
