IEC 61131-1: General Information (edition 2.0 - 2003)
Introduction
This Part of IEC 61131 constitutes Part 1 of a series of standards on programmable controllers and their associated peripherals and should be read in conjunction with the other parts of the series.
Where a conflict exists between this and other IEC standards (except basic safety standards), the provisions of this standard should be considered to govern in the area of programmable controllers and their associated peripherals.
The purposes of this standard are:
- Part 1 establishes the definitions and identifies the principal characteristics relevant to the selection and application of programmable controllers and their associated peripherals;
- Part 2 specifies equipment requirements and related tests for programmable controllers (PLC) and their associated peripherals;
- Part 3 defines, for each of the most commonly used programming languages, major fields of application, syntactic and semantic rules, simple but complete basic sets of programming elements, applicable tests and means by which manufacturers may expand or adapt those basic sets to their own programmable controller implementations;
- Part 4 gives general overview information and application guidelines of the standard for the PLC end-user;
- Part 5 defines the communication between programmable controllers and other electronic systems;
- Part 6 is reserved;
- Part 7 defines the programming language for fuzzy control;
- Part 8 gives guidelines for the application and implementation of the programming languages defined in Part 3;
Scope
This Part of IEC 61131 applies to programmable controllers (PLC) and their associated peripherals such as programming and debugging tools (PADTs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), etc. , which have as their intended use the control and command of machines and industrial processes.
PLCs and their associated peripherals are intended to be used in an industrial environment and may be provided as open or enclosed equipment If a PLC or its associated peripherals are intended for use in other environments, then the specific requirements, standards and installation practices for those other environments must be additionally applied to the PLC and its associated peripherals.
The functionality of a programmable controller can be performed as well on a specific hardware and software platform as on a general-purpose computer or a personal computer with industrial environment features This standard applies to any products performing the function of PLCs and/or their associated peripherals. This standard does not deal with the functional safety or other aspects of the overall automated system PLCs, their application program and their associated peripherals are considered as components of a control system.
Since PLCs are component devices, safety considerations for the overall automated system including installation and application are beyond the scope of this Part However, PLC safety as related to electric shock and fire hazards, electrical interference immunity and error detecting of the PLC-system operation (such as the use of parity checking, self-testing diagnostics, etc ), are addressed Refer to IEC 60364 or applicable national/local regulations for electrical installation and guidelines.
This Part of IEC 61131 gives the definitions of terms used in this standard. It identifies the principal functional characteristics of programmable controller systems.