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Mortgaging Future Versatility in Metal-Cutting Machines

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Submitted by kbonfante on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 14:39.

We use a micro PLC to control our metal-cutting machines with good results. When customers see that we use a PLC, they want to specify brand, causing us multiple headaches in design, programming and after-sales support. There's very little variability in the operating parameters from machine to machine, so we're actually thinking of switching to a preprogrammed relay that would be set up and delivered by the vendor ready to go with its own part number. If a machine needed something a little different, we would order it preprogrammed accordingly. Are we mortgaging future versatility for fewer headaches right now?

You hit nerve..

Submitted by acssinc on Wed, 05/05/2010 - 19:27.

I have a unique perspective on your issue of PLC and customer specifications. I was once one of those pesky specifiers, telling OEMs which PLC to use and for good reason. As the president and CEO of Automation & Control System Solutions (a systems integrator) we often wrote the specifications and were the gatekeepers for our clients' control platforms. After all, keeping the cats and dogs to a minimum reduced maintenance costs and made system integration less expensive and far easier. Once we diversified and started a custom equipment manufacturing company I found life as an OEM conflicting. We respected our customer standards, heck, we wrote several of them. The issue was that some of these standards would require utilizing more expensive and less capable control platforms at a time when our clients wanted lower cost and greater performance. Here are two simple options; the correct solution depends on the problem. If there is a performance or capabilities problem with a specified control platform, then be honest and set a reasonable price and reasonable reduced capabilities. They will not like it, the specified hardware provider will probably argue. If it is truly important, then it is worth the premium. The client can always hire someone to convert the system and take over responsibility (we have done this often with equipment from Europe). If the performance is not an impact and the issue is how you support different platforms, then the answer is simple. Look at Horner OCS, they are low cost and will provide a custom faceplate (brand label) for their controllers. It is now your controller. They also solve the integration issues easily. They have Ethernet I/P and Modbus TCP onboard. Between those two protocols there is no argument, and integration is easy. Maintenance is also easy, a Micro SD can be used to load the application. On top of that, the software is free.