PLC Programming for Process Plants: IEC 61131-3 & SIL

▸ PLCs run the compressors, the drives, the utilities and the package units that keep process plants operating.

Engineers across many roles write, review, commission or troubleshoot PLC logic — and most learned it by imitation, copying the last project, with no methodology underneath.

This course gives that methodology, for process plant specifically.

▸ Process plant, not factory automation

Most PLC training is aimed at machine builders and manufacturing. This course is about the logic that protects process plant and the people working on it: interlocks and permissives, motor control and drives, start-up and shutdown sequences, SIL-rated safety PLCs, and the factory acceptance testing that has to pass before any of it reaches site.

It is written for engineers who specify, write, review and commission PLC programs — not as a hands-on software tutorial.

▸ What you will master

• PLC architecture and the scan cycle — CPU, I/O, racks and how the scan governs every program you write

• All five IEC 61131-3 languages — ladder, FBD, structured text, SFC and IL, and knowing which to use for what

• Ladder for process interlocks — contacts, coils, timers and counters applied to permissives and plant protection

• FBD and Structured Text — the languages that handle what ladder does badly

• Sequential Function Charts — steps, transitions and state machine design for start-up and shutdown sequences

• Motor control and variable speed drives — the most common package logic on any plant

• Siemens S7-1500/TIA Portal and Allen-Bradley ControlLogix/Studio 5000 — how the same methodology applies on both platforms

• SIL-rated PLCs and IEC 61511 — where a safety PLC is required, how it differs from a standard PLC, and the functional safety requirements that follow

• Integration, FAT and commissioning — how a PLC system is actually tested and handed over

▸ The safety PLC lecture

A dedicated lecture covers SIL-rated PLCs and IEC 61511 requirements. It is one of the least-taught subjects in PLC training and one of the most consequential — the difference between a control PLC and a safety PLC is not a configuration setting, and getting it wrong on a process plant has serious consequences.

▸ What you get

• 12 focused lectures across six sections

• Two full mock examinations — timed, scored and retakeable

• Worked process plant application examples

• Lifetime access, mobile and TV access, and a certificate of completion

• Udemy's 30-day money-back guarantee

▸ Who this is for

Automation, control and C&I engineers who write, review or commission PLC programs. Maintenance and commissioning technicians troubleshooting logic, interlocks and faults. System integrators and panel builders working on Siemens or Allen-Bradley. Electrical engineers moving into automation and package-unit control. Operations staff who want to read the logic running their equipment. And technical sales engineers at PLC vendors.

▸ Please note: this is a methodology and engineering course, not a hands-on software tutorial. No PLC software, licence or hardware is required — and none is used. If you want step-by-step instruction in a specific vendor package, this is not that course. If you want to understand what good PLC logic looks like and why, it is.

▸ No prior PLC experience is required — the architecture and languages are built from the ground up.

Built by a practising engineer with over fifteen years writing and commissioning PLC logic on oil, gas and energy projects, including the interlocks, permissives and motor control that protect plant and people.