“We work with every major brand of PLC, but creating a bridge between two networks in order to send and receive data is usually problematic and time-consuming to accomplish”, explains Jeffrey Moore, Senior System Engineer, at Sytech.

“One of our customers needed to interface between a GE Fanuc PACSystems RX7i PLC and a Siemens Simocode Motor Management system operating on a PROFIBUS network”.

“If there is an open slot in the GEFanuc PLC rack and there is a GEFanuc card or third-party VME card available to make the connection, then creating a bridge between the PLC and the “foreign” network is not too difficult. However, if there is no slot available, then the expense of expanding the current rack or adding another rack can be a costly proposition. Furthermore, some third-party VME cards have a set of issues all of their own, making their inclusion into the application time consuming”.

The problem

In the case of Sytech Systems’ client, the problem was that there could be no rack expansion or PROFIBUS communication cards added to the system. “So, we chose to use the Anybus X-gateway. It enables us to provide a bridge between the Fanuc PLC Family’s intrinsic or existing Ethernet network and almost any other industrial network. As in our client’s application, PAC System RX7i Ethernet-to-PROFIBUS network slave devices, Sytech Systems can create a communications path to meet the required specifications."

The solution

Thanks to Anybus X-gateway, there was no need to add Fanuc or third-party VME communications cards to expand the current PLC rack size or to add an expansion rack.