PLC + LinuxCNC for industrial machine with simple HMI (non-G-code operators)

By the way, after re-reading your post I realized this was for a medical product line. When I mentioned sheet/panel materials (plastics, laminates, composites, etc.) I meant it in a very generic sense. I’d be really interested to know what kind of materials you were actually processing (e.g. medical-grade films, technical fabrics, multilayer laminates, polymers, etc.), since the combination of a heat press laminator and an ultrasonic cutter suggests a quite specialized process.

Hi all, just to close the loop on this thread.
I ended up implementing a small Python bridge between a PLC/HMI (via OPC UA) and LinuxCNC, following the “PLC as cell controller, LinuxCNC as motion controller” approach discussed here (handshake, heartbeat, command/status boundary, etc.).
The script is vendor-agnostic (standard OPC UA) and already includes an MIT license header, so feel free to use, modify, or adapt it for your own setups.
If someone adapts it to Modbus TCP, MQTT, or another transport, feel free to share back.
Thanks to everyone for the input in this thread — it helped a lot to shape the final architecture.
— Marcos DC