Challenges:
The customer had developed an IO-Link device using a proprietary stack provided by a vendor. However, they faced several challenges:Limited on-site PLC expertise and insufficient knowledge of IO-Link integration with PLC systems.The product was in the system testing phase, but the main hurdle was progressing toward certification and validation from the customer’s perspective. Due to resource constraints on PLC development, providing a sample application for their customers to use as a PLC integration guide became a significant challenge.
Solution:
Our team understood their requirement and proposed below solution:
- Fetch the technical datasheet of their custom IO Link device product w.r.t ISDU commands index/PDOUT/PDIN info/M-Sequence type, cycle time etc..
- Looked into the market and identified a PLC vendor who provides the IO Link library for communicating with the IO Link device due to time crunch.
- Built a testing logic with appropriate ladder logic, created tag database data structures and command mapping unit to communicate with the IO Link device from Vendor PLC.
Benefits:
- The sample app built was then verified by the customer and the same was used by their customer to validate the functionality.
- Used the same PLC setup for system testing activity and proceed for certification once all features were tested functionally.
