Management of technology functions

A basic distinction is made between two types of technology functions:

technology functions synchronised block-by-block and cross-block synchronised technology functions. This subdivision is also reflected on the High-Level Interface.

All technology functions to be synchronised block-by-block must be acknowledged at the latest at the end of the NC block in which they were programmed. They are therefore saved in consecutive sequence in the corresponding management field.

This is not the case with technology functions with cross-block synchronisation. In this case, the non-acknowledged technology functions yet to be executed may be distributed over the entire field (with gaps). In addition, it may occur that several identical technology functions are present in this field since, owing to cross-block synchronisation, the individual technology commands do not need to be acknowledged at the end of the NC block in which they were programmed. This must be allowed for at the PLC end to generate the acknowledgement of technology functions.

The number of technology functions programmed in an NC block is made available on the HLI for the array of the technology functions synchronised block-by-block. The number of non-acknowledged technology functions is specified for the array of cross-block synchronised technology functions.