Helping standardise PLC programming.

The development tool PLC Checker from Itris Automation is now available with a PLCopen® coding guidelines rules set allowing developers to automatically verify that their program respects this reference standard.

For the past 25 years, PLCopen® has been working towards standardising PLC programming. In April 2016, they released a set of coding guidelines to promote and share good programming practices for PLCs across all industries. Now Itris Automation has integrated these coding guidelines into PLC Checker, an automatic static analysis tool, allowing users to quickly and easily verify that their program respects PLCopen®’s guidelines.

PLCopen® is a worldwide association whose mission is to lead the resolution of topics related to control programming to support the use of international standards in this field. Their coding guidelines are a set of 64 good practice programming rules which relate to the naming, comments, coding practices and languages of the code. These guidelines were created by a working group consisting of members from several different companies in the industrial automation domain, including PLC vendors (Siemens, Omron…), software vendors (CoDeSys, Itris Automation…) and educational institutions (RWTH Aachen…), to name a few. These coding guidelines, available for free from the PLCopen® website, are the first of their kind for PLC programming. Their creation by a mixed working group means that ideas came from several backgrounds and influences. Thus, creating a comprehensive set of coding rules that are independent of industry and PLC brand.

Itris Automation will also be hosting a webinar on this topic on Monday 23rd October at 4pm (GMT+1).  Sign-up Here

Itris Automation decided to integrate the PLCopen® coding guidelines into PLC Checker, their static analysis tool. Since its launch in 2008, PLC Checker has allowed its more than 1400 users to automate the verification testing process of their PLC programs, taking out the painful manual review process that would be used otherwise. PLC Checker works by checking a PLC program against a set of rules, with a message created for every violation of a rule. These results are then displayed in two ways. Firstly, they are displayed visually to allow the user to manage their program’s quality. Secondly, they are displayed in detail, to allow the user to work with these results to improve their program and fix any bugs.

They decided to integrate the PLCopen® coding guidelines into PLC Checker as they share PLCopen®’s objective of improving the quality of PLC programs and promoting good practices. They believe the guidelines are a comprehensive reference standard and that they will be of great use to all their current and future users.

Denis Chalon, Chief Technical Officer at Itris Automation and who participated in the creation of the PLCopen® coding guidelines, states: “The rules creation process was a lot of work, but it was interesting to see the different ideas that came from other members of the group and the end result. The guidelines are very detailed and a great starting point for any company that wants to follow some sort of coding rules.”

Regarding the integration of PLCopen®’s coding guidelines with PLC Checker, he added: “Having been part of the working group, integrating the guidelines into PLC Checker was the logical next step. The PLCopen® guidelines have a lot of potential and we expect they will facilitate the wider adoption of best practices, including the use of static analysis tools.”

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GAMP5 complience in pharma industry.

The pharmaceutical industry is subject to strict regulatory requirements which demand a lot of time and effort to be spent documenting every step, process, and item. Itris Automation will be hosting a webinar in March 2017 to demonstrate how PLC Checker can help pharmaceutical companies more efficiently verify and document the GAMP 5 compliance of their PLC programs.

Part of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) is a set of guidelines regarding automated systems. These guidelines explain how to incorporate quality into each step of the manufacturing process to achieve the required quality of the finished product. Although not an obligation, most pharmaceutical companies choose to be compliant with GAMP, now recognised worldwide as a good practice. However, ensuring compliance and creating all of the required documentation is a laborious process.

In the webinar, you will discover an innovative way to address Appendix D4, “Management, Development, and Review of Software”, of the GAMP guidelines which will save companies time and money. Using PLC Checker, a unique static analysis tool dedicated to PLC programs, and the GAMP coding rules option, users can quickly and efficiently verify their level of compliance and automatically produce the necessary documentation.

Join the webinar to find out how you can save time and money in your GAMP 5 compliance process.

Karoline Beske, Export Director at Itris Automation, will conduct the first webinar in English on 20th March at 4pm (GMT+1) and a second in German on 27th March at 11am (GMT+1). Both webinars are free of charge and open to anyone. Book here.

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PLC paper wins award at Italian event!

Itris Automation, provider of innovative software solutions for the automation industry, was rewarded during the opening ceremony of SPS IPC Drives in Parma (I) for the excellence of their concept of Software Factory.

This first participation of Itris Automation as exhibitor at the largest Italian fair in the sector of industrial automation is already a huge success for the company, which has just announced the development of its activities in Italy.

The article presented by Itris Automation at the round table dedicated to Automation 4.0 was considered the most successful and inspiring and that was among another hundred of contributions during the conference.

This price constitutes the recognition of the relevance of Itris Automation’s approach by experts represented by more than 30 companies and prestigious Italian universities. Itris Automation’s paper proposes in fact to industrialise the development of programs for logic controllers in order to make the factory of the future more efficient. This approach is made possible by Itris Automation’s range of tools for quality verification (PLC Checker), automatic translation (PLC Converter) and the generation of documentation (PLC DocGen).

Denis Chalon, Technical Director at Itris Automation and co-author of the decorated paper explains: "The programmers of logic controllers play a crucial role in the dispersion of programming techniques in the industrial world. By supporting them with our tools throughout the whole life cycle of the installations, we are enabling industrial innovation that is flexible, productive and shared by all."

Eric Pierrel, President of Itris Automation, added: "This award recognises the outstanding effort of our teams. The fact, that the committee is composed of industrial experts confirms our vision. After the first commercial and technical successes in Italy, we are encouraged to emphasise on our presence and to advance in our international development."