PLC Converter

Expensive PLC Migrations

Maintaining old PLCs is often impossible: hardware becomes obsolete, old PLC parts are difficult to find and human resource become scarce. Migrating PLCs is thus necessary to ensure the durability of industrial facilities. Also, new generations of PLCs bring more features and better performances to support evolving processes.

Unfortunately, new generations of PLCs also often come with new programming languages, which are incompatible with previous generations of PLCs. As a consequence, programs use in old PLCs become also obsolete, even if the process controlled by the PLC remains the same.

Thus, it is often necessary to rewrite completely the application or to invest in many hours of manual translation of the program. The value of the PLC program IP is greatly depreciated. Also, understanding an existing program is not trivial and current conversion methods (either manual or poorly supported by tools) are costly, error-prone and painful. As a consequence, validation of the translated code is very expensive and the actual cost of the conversion is impossible to predict.

An Automatic Translation

The productivity of current code translations is not satisfactory. To solve that issue, Itris Automation Square offers its innovative PLC Converter for the automatic translation of PLC programs. Thanks to its tool’s capability to understand the semantics of PLC applications, Itris Automation Square generates a very high quality code, with the same behavior than the previous application.

PLC Converter is offered at a packaged price which depends only on the quantity of I/Os. The cost of usage is thus totally predictable. PLC Convertor translates automatically 100% of the database, the variables and the source code. The only parts that may not be translated are those related to features specific to a PLC (axis cards, regulation cards, communication cards). Once the automatic translation is completed, the only remaining action is thus to write code for the new features of the target PLC within the development environment offered by the PLC vendor.


PLC Converter for the automatic translation of PLC programs PLC Converter for the automatic translation of PLC programs

Benefits

Thanks to the usage of automatic semantic translation tools, PLC Converter guarantees identical functionalities of the translated application and a very-high level of quality. The validation of the generated code is thus far cheaper, even when the application has to be qualified against safety standards. Also, comparing the behavior of the old and the new systems is very easy. Finally, downtime of the facility is greatly reduced thanks to smoother installation and commissioning of the new PLC.

Also, PLC Converter pricing is fixed. As a consequence, budgets are predictable. Delays are also known in advance with a firm commitment on the delivery date.

Finally, as PLC Converter is a multi-platform translation offering, you will be able to choose your next PLC without any constraint of compatibility.

PLC Converter Methodology

The conversion is a 5 steps process:

  • Export of the existing application and upload of the files through Itris Automation Square extranet: www.automationsquare.com.
  • Mapping of the inputs/outputs, prepared by the user thanks to an Excel® file pre-filled with the list of all variables found automatically in the code to be translated.
  • Automatic translation of the program thanks to tools that preserve the semantics of the code. PLC Converter runs then as a batch process on Itris Automation Square servers.
  • Validation of the automatic translation by importing the generated code in the development environment of the target PLC.
  • Delivery of the new application and of a conversion report that lists the few issues specific to the target PLC.

Availability

PLC Converter is available for the following combinations of Source/Targets:

  • From Schneider Electric SMC to Schneider Electric Unity (Premium, Quantum and M340)
  • From Schneider Electric April/Orphée to Schneider Electric Unity (Premium, Quantum and M340)
  • From Schneider Electric TSX Série7 to Schneider Electric Unity (Premium, Quantum and M340)
  • From Alstom Alspa to Schneider Electric Unity (Premium, Quantum and M340)

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Download PLC Converter product datasheet!