Industry 4.0: Integrated engineering based on AutomationML and eCl@ss

The Industry 4.0 demonstrator will play a key role during the trade fair appearance of Phoenix Contact at SPS IPCdrives 2014. This machine illustrates how some aspects of the Industry 4.0 future project can be implemented based on the example of automated control cabinet construction. In the first step of the electric control cabinet engineering process, the user creates a wiring diagram with an ECAD system and then uses this diagram to design customized terminal blocks. The wiring diagram is used as input for the design of further assembly stages and serves as the basis of the wiring concept. Most companies use different engineering tools for separate planning steps, and these tools are generally incompatible with one another. Data transfer between different formats is usually both complex and prone to errors.

This is why Phoenix Contact combines the established standards AutomationML and eCl@ss in order to create a continuous engineering process. AutomationML is used to define systems as well as articles which are to be produced in the plant. This allows all engineering tools to work with the same files. In order to have a consistent interpretation of the file data, the AutomationML version used at Phoenix Contact includes role class libraries on the basis of the eCl@ss classification standard. This precision article description scheme makes it possible to develop technical systems in the spirit of Industry 4.0 by enabling them to independently identify the manufacturing stations required for producing an item. The Industry 4.0 demonstrator adopts this principle.