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Location Zurich

Automation Engineering Zurich

PLC engineering for machinery and plant engineering OEMs in greater Zurich

Greater Zurich is home to global OEMs – from Bühler to Schindler, Sulzer and Rieter. As a Luxembourg-based EU partner, I support Zurich engineering teams with cross-border PLC capacity for retrofit, commissioning and reverse engineering.

PLC programming in Zurich, Winterthur, Uster and Zug – TIA Portal V19, STEP 7 Classic, WinCC Unified. OEM engineering, worldwide plant commissioning, reverse engineering. Cross-border setup via SEM notification and A1 from Luxembourg.

About the Region

Automation Engineering in Zurich

Greater Zurich-Winterthur-Zug is one of Europe's densest OEM and machinery clusters. Bühler in Uzwil produces plants for food, animal feed and pharma worldwide, Schindler in Ebikon is the global market leader for elevators and escalators, Sulzer in Winterthur manufactures pumps and runs global service engineering, Rieter in Winterthur builds textile machines, ABB Switzerland in Baden supplies drive and robotics technology, Siemens Switzerland in Zurich markets the entire portfolio from TIA to Digital Factory. On top, dozens of mid-sized special machine builders operate in Wallisellen, Effretikon, Schlieren, Bülach and Wettingen. These OEMs' engineering teams are usually well staffed – but need external capacity for retrofit projects on legacy plants worldwide, for reverse engineering of lost programs or for short-notice commissioning when the in-house team is tied up. Typical scenario: an end customer of the Zurich OEM needs commissioning support in Asia or the USA, the internal engineering team is committed on other major projects. That's exactly where a flexibly deployable EU partner adds value – travel readiness, 15+ years of commissioning experience on four continents, Siemens focus. Focus areas for Zurich customers: retrofit of S5 and S7-Classic to S7-1500 with TIA Portal V18/V19 in OEM machines, HMI retrofit to WinCC Unified with modern web frontend and multi-language operator interface, worldwide commissioning of OEM plants (typically two to six weeks on site), reverse engineering for lost symbols, functional safety per EN ISO 13849 with F-CPUs and SISTEMA calculation. Integration into the OEM team's existing engineering standards is standard practice: TIA libraries, faceplate templates, Git versioning. Cross-border compliance before every Swiss assignment: SEM notification, A1 certificate, reverse-charge invoicing. Drive from Mettlach: 5:15 h via A4/A36/Basel/A2 or by train Saarbrücken–Mannheim–Zurich HB.

Cities & Regions

Service Area

Zurich
Winterthur
Uster
Zug
Baar
Wetzikon
Dübendorf
Schlieren
Baden
Uzwil
Project Scenarios

Project Scenarios

Worldwide commissioning on behalf of an OEM

Starting point
Swiss machine builder in greater Zurich exports a special machine to Asia. Engineering and pre-acceptance testing at the Swiss plant, final commissioning at the end-customer site.
Task
OEM needs experienced commissioning capacity with travel readiness and multi-industry experience. Internal commissioning team committed on other major projects in parallel.
Solution
Pre-acceptance testing at the OEM facility, then final on-site commissioning with operator training. A1 certificate for the CH facility, visa/business passport for the end-customer country. Written handover protocols before departure.
Outcome
End customer accepts the plant on schedule, OEM receives final milestone payment.

Engineering integration into OEM team

Starting point
Large special machine builder in the Zurich Oberland. Engineering team of 15+ people, own TIA library and faceplate collection, defined review processes.
Task
Short-term reinforcement during a project peak. Integration into existing standards required – no standalone engineering possible without creating documentation gaps.
Solution
Onboarding on the internal TIA Portal standards in the first project week (libraries, templates, versioning conventions, coding style). Daily stand-ups with the project lead, parallel work with two internal engineers, pull-request-based reviews.
Outcome
Project delivered on schedule, engineering consistency preserved.

Retrofit multi-vendor controls to a Siemens stack

Starting point
Packaging technology OEM in greater Zurich. Legacy plant with Siemens S7-300 as main controller and Allen-Bradley CompactLogix for drives. End-customer requirement: uniform service stack.
Task
Migration to a unified Siemens platform (S7-1500), drive conversion to SINAMICS, HMI audit trail, validation protocols for end-customer acceptance.
Solution
Phased hardware migration: first the S7 main controller with SCL-based sequencing in modular function blocks, then drives onto SINAMICS S120 with Profinet. HMI refresh in WinCC Unified with audit trail. AI-accelerated creation of validation protocols.
Outcome
Plant on a single-vendor stack, spare-parts strategy simplified, service contracts with the end customer extended.

Functional safety per EN ISO 13849

Starting point
Plant builder in greater Zurich. CE declaration for a new special machine requires documented safety analysis – personnel safety at moving axes, safety door interlock, emergency-stop architecture.
Task
Implement the safety circuit with S7-1500F, PL calculation (Performance Level) per EN ISO 13849-1, validation documentation for CE declaration and risk assessment.
Solution
SISTEMA calculation of the safety functions with documented PL values, F-CPU programming with Safety Advanced in TIA Portal V19, function tests with protocols, written validation documentation including verification and validation records.
Outcome
Validation documentation handed over — with it, the plant builder could complete its own CE declaration, machine delivered.
Related pages

More background

This Zurich page is meant as an entry point – services, references and profile are fully documented on the main pages.

Services

PLC programming, commissioning, retrofit, reverse engineering, AI workflows – the complete service portfolio.

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References

30+ international commissionings. Project examples from pharma, machinery and packaging.

View references →

About me

David Prybisch – Luxembourg-based automation engineer. Background, working style, tools.

Read about me →

Switzerland overview

All three clusters compared – Basel, Zurich, Lucerne. Including cross-border setup for your purchasing team.

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, that's the default case. I integrate with your coding standards, libraries and review processes. Typical setup: your team plans and reviews, I take ownership of scoped modules or full retrofit packages – or travel for worldwide commissioning as engineering reinforcement.

OEMs in machinery and plant engineering (Bühler, Schindler, Sulzer, Rieter), large industry (ABB, Siemens CH), engineering offices with capacity needs, mid-sized special machine builders in Winterthur and Zug.

Yes, worldwide commissioning is a focus area – over 30 international assignments in recent years. With A1 from Luxembourg, ATA Carnet for engineering devices and travel readiness, I am typically available for OEM commissioning. Invoicing either to the OEM or directly to the end customer.

Siemens TIA Portal V17/V19, STEP 7 Classic (S7-300/400), WinCC Unified, WinCC Classic. Drives: SEW MoviDrive, SINAMICS S120/G120. Safety controllers: S7-1500F. Reverse engineering of S5 and S7-Classic without symbols – AI-accelerated.

Before the assignment: SEM notification (8-day lead), A1 certificate from CCSS Luxembourg by email to purchasing. During the assignment: engineering devices on an ATA Carnet. After: invoice EUR/CHF, reverse charge for acquisition tax declaration. Written confirmation before each new assignment.

Drive from Mettlach: approx. 5.5 h. Ideal for planned assignments, multi-day projects with overnight stays. For emergencies, alternatively FRA→ZRH by flight (approx. 1.5 h travel time). For recurring projects I also work several weeks on site.

Travel by my own car including engineering devices (laptop, programming device, measurement equipment, special tools) via ATA Carnet. Overnight stays near the facility – in greater Zurich typically hotels in Winterthur, Uzwil or Zurich North depending on plant location. For multi-week commissionings (e.g. a Bühler plant in Uzwil or Sulzer service in Winterthur) weekend commuting back to Mettlach is feasible – 5:15 h drive, predictable.

Multi-user engineering in TIA Portal V19 (with or without engineering server), versioning via Git with TIA Openness export, code reviews via pull request. If a Zurich OEM already has their own standards (libraries, faceplate templates, naming conventions, review checklist), I adopt these in the onboarding session during the first project week. AI-supported tools for code diff, re-documentation and specification drafting have been part of my daily setup for nearly a year.
Cross-linking

Other Swiss locations

BSL·Northwest CH

Basel

Pharma · specialty chemicals · plant engineering

  • Roche · Lonza · Novartis
  • SKAN · Bachem
  • Syngenta · Clariant
490 km·04:30 h from Mettlach
Region
LUC·Central Switzerland

Lucerne

Mid-market · packaging · metal processing

  • Schurter · Trisa
  • Bossard · Pilatus
  • Komax · maxon
590 km·05:45 h from Mettlach
Region

Project in greater Zurich?

Let's discuss your machinery or OEM project – including cross-border compliance before the assignment starts.

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