Zachary Stank

Product Manager Control, Safety, I/Os

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are extremely common across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, oil/gas, and transportation. Essentially, they are just another type of computer. Though they differ from PCs in many ways, Machine Design provides a succinct definition that highlights their differences: “a programmable logic controller is a digital computer designed for automation and industrial controls. It was created to resist to a wide range of operating conditions, including temperature, pressure, electrical noises, and vibrations. The most important feature that truly led to its success is that it is a hard real-time system.”

A PLC collects inputs, analyzes them with its internal logic, and then creates outputs based on that analysis. It repeats this cycle ad infinitum, all the while withstanding harsh environments. This makes PLCs dependable tools, and so businesses around the world rely on them in production environments.

Everything, however, has a limit. PLCs are no different. In fact, as we move towards Industrie 4.0 with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), these limitations are becoming even more pronounced.

These are the top five things that PLCs can’t do.