Cognex PLCs

Integrating Cognex vision systems with PLCs is a common practice in industrial automation, leveraging standard industrial protocols like EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and Modbus TCP for seamless communication. Engineers typically configure Cognex cameras to receive trigger signals from the PLC to initiate inspections, and then return result data such as pass/fail status, measurement values, or decoded barcode information back to the PLC for process control decisions. The Job Builder and Spreadsheet interfaces in Cognex's In-Sight Explorer software allow users to map vision system data to PLC tags or memory addresses, while the built-in communication tools support both cyclic and acyclic data exchange. Advanced applications might use Cognex's SDK or custom scripting to implement more complex data handling between the vision system and PLC, such as sending recipe changes or receiving dynamic inspection parameters. PLCs from major manufacturers like Allen-Bradley, Siemens, and Mitsubishi all have well-documented integration paths with Cognex products.