Glossary · Industrial communication
CC-Link
Also known as: Control & Communication Link
German: CC-Link
In industrial communication, CC-Link is an open fieldbus family managed by the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA), originally developed by Mitsubishi Electric. The family includes the serial CC-Link and the Ethernet-based CC-Link IE variants and is included in the IEC 61158 and IEC 61784 fieldbus standards.
- Industrial communication
- Standards
In one sentence
CC-Link is an open fieldbus family managed by the CLPA, with serial and Ethernet-based (CC-Link IE) variants, widely used in Asia.
Example
An assembly line built in Japan uses CC-Link IE Field to connect its robots and remote I/O stations to the line controller.
How it applies
- Engineering: CC-Link is common in machines and plants from Asian suppliers. When such machines are integrated into plants that use another fieldbus, gateways or dual-protocol controllers are needed.
- Commissioning: Station numbers, the number of occupied stations and the transmission speed are configured per device; profile files describe the devices to the engineering tool.
- Operation: The CLPA certifies conforming devices; using certified devices reduces integration issues but doesn't replace testing the complete network.
- Documentation: The documentation team names the exact variant (CC-Link, CC-Link IE Field, CC-Link IE TSN and so on), because the variants aren't interchangeable. State the station configuration and the supported functions.
CC-Link vs. CC-Link IE
The original CC-Link uses RS-485-based serial transmission. CC-Link IE uses Ethernet physical layers with higher bandwidth; CC-Link IE TSN adds Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) mechanisms.