Simatic Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The most successful automation system in the world is turning 50. With the controller series Simatic, Siemens once replaced basic circuit elements like the relay and switch with tiny transistors. The company introduced its first Simatic controller at the Paris machine tools fair in 1958. It was a hard-wired electronic system for controlling and regulating small sub-tasks on production lines.

Within these modules, logical functions were combined with output amplifiers so that contactors, solenoid valves or other control elements could be activated with them. As control elements, the company relied on transistors, a relatively new invention at that time. These were small and wear-resistant and were therefore primarily used in applications requiring a high level of reliability: in transformer substations and power plants.

The early 1970s marked the beginning of the transition from hard-wired to memory programming. The first SPS, Simatic S3, still consisted of a whole cabinet full of memory and electronic components. But the development of microelectronic systems proceeded at such a rapid pace that memory storage and logic devices kept getting smaller and smaller. It was a little less than 30 years ago that Siemens automation technology achieved its definitive breakthrough in the market, with the Simatic S5 family.

In 1996 there followed the Simatic S7 and the next leap in technology — the shift from SPS to totally integrated automation, which focuses on integrated solutions rather than the performance features of individual devices. At the same time, this also enabled Siemens to lay the foundation for an integration of process control technology into the Simatic world — with the SIMATIC PCS 7 process control system, which is based on the same Simatic technology.

Today, companies in many sectors — first and foremost in the automotive industry — are working to implement the “digital factory,” in which all processes mesh together seamlessly. Following virtual production planning in the 1990s, one trend today is virtual commissioning of entire production lines. Given these developments, Siemens is working intensively on integrating the software company UGS, now Siemens PLM Software, into its existing industrial automation activities.