Training a new PLC Tech.

If you were introducing a new maintenance person with a solid background in electrical theory / conventional motor controls, where would you begin when introducing them to the PLC world?

What are the basic PLC concepts that every maintenance person should know to be successful?

Thanks!

Matt

Welcome to the forum.

Be very polite to the others in your plant about this, when asking the questions below, the programmers may think you want to take their job away.
State to them we need to train someone to trouble shoot issues.

this happened at my previous plant and was handled all wrong by the engineering manager. it took a long time before the man realized he was still needed and was able still able to write programs. after that point, we worked together very well.

The very first thing to do - see what plc's are in your plant and which one is the company standard.

then see if you can find any online programming manual for the plc. Good reference materials.

Does the maintenance department have a trainer plc, programming software and pc to work with? there are some online books you can buy, programmable logic controllers by McGraw hill is one.
if there is one, let him play with it and write simple tasks.

once he has the basic fundamentals, have him look at a simple machine running at the plant and then look at the logic to see if he can follow what is going on.
Ask the programmers to spend a little time with him - be nice about it.

james

I'd start with these basics and the rest will come as natural questions as time goes by.

Teach them how to read ladder diagrams, if they don't already know.

PLC Programming Communication
- How to connect to the PLC & HMI (Protocols, serial, etehernet, etc.)
- Which cables to use for each device
- Which software to use for each device

PLC Programming
- Understanding of the NOT function -]/[- (It's Not a normally closed contact)
- Understand program flow, I/O table update etc.
- How to search a program for variables to find what is holding up the process
- Understand the address syntax (Especially if different manufacturers of PLC's are used.)

Chuck them in at the deep end and say get on with it.

If your plant uses Rockwell products,

Work with him as spelled out in the post above, to get his feet wet and get a general understanding of whats, what.

Then send him down to see Ron for 5 days and you will be very happy with the transformation you see in this individual when he returns from this class.

http://www.ronbeaufort.com/main_frame_page.htm

BCS

Edit: Excluding janner_10's post... he slipped that one in while I was typing.
Janner's method is how I started and I can tell you it is no fun.

Beyond the details of how to troubleshoot I like to add some simple notes -

Operators can make or break your troubleshooting experience. If you are in a position to make small 'quality of life' improvements, do so. Makes things go more smoothly later...

Code doesn't change itself(well, almost never). I won't open a laptop until I do some more basic troubleshooting with the operators/electricians. Even then, I make it clear that I am looking up the machine sequence and not 'making magic changes'.

janner_10 said:

Chuck them in at the deep end and say get on with it.

Click to expand...

The deep end being nightshift... thats how I started, learned a LOT and was glad they did it (not at the time)

We sell PLC Trainers that a lot of schools use or you can have them build one, they will also learn from that

Dravik said:

I won't open a laptop until I do some more basic troubleshooting with the operators/electricians.

Click to expand...

99% of the time you can ask the operator whats wrong and look at the LED's on the PLC and figure out faster whats wrong before the laptop even boots up....

Dravik said:

Code doesn't change itself(well, almost never). I won't open a laptop until I do some more basic troubleshooting with the operators/electricians. Even then, I make it clear that I am looking up the machine sequence and not 'making magic changes'.

Click to expand...

I agree with what you are saying but...

Speaking as the "electrician" the laptop is not the first thing that comes out but in a lot of cases it is certainly the second.

As you say not to make magic changes, but it is a very powerful troubleshooting tool, which can save a lot of time by pinpointing exactly where the problem is. (which field device to look at).

Having the skill to do this basic task can save a lot of downtime trying to remedy a problem with machinery process controlled via PLC.

BCS

Bering C Sparky said:

I agree with what you are saying but...

Speaking as the "electrician" the laptop is not the first thing that comes out but in a lot of cases it is certainly the second.

As you say not to make magic changes, but it is a very powerful troubleshooting tool, which can save a lot of time by pinpointing exactly where the problem is. (which field device to look at).

Having the skill to do this basic task can save a lot of downtime trying to remedy a problem with machinery process controlled via PLC.

BCS

Click to expand...

Oh for sure, I don't discourage using it, just you know, Rule 0: Is it plugged in? (I spent an hour on the phone on Saturday troubleshooting what ended up being a sensor that was hanging from its wire inside the machine)

janner_10 said:

Chuck them in at the deep end and say get on with it.

Click to expand...

It was tongue in cheek, but that did happen to me. About 10 years ago, I got thrust an S7-300 and Step 7 / WinCC and got told to make it work like that old S5 that will fail soon.

I was a maintenance tech at a factory at the time so knew how the machine should work, which helped enormously.

That said, I got it done in 2 weeks and fitted it over the weekend, it worked well.

I stayed for another 6 months and made that my career ever since.

janner_10 said:

It was tongue in cheek, but that did happen to me. About 10 years ago, I got thrust an S7-300 and Step 7 / WinCC and got told to make it work like that old S5 that will fail soon.

I was a maintenance tech at a factory at the time so knew how the machine should work, which helped enormously.

That said, I got it done in 2 weeks and fitted it over the weekend, it worked well.

I stayed for another 6 months and made that my career ever since.

Click to expand...

For sure, if you get thrown in the deep end you will either learn to swim or you will sink.

But it is much nicer if there is someone to teach you to cup your hands and kick your feet.....and maybe allow you to wade into the pool from the shallow end first, to see what the water feels like.

I can say that this forum is what kept me from sinking when I was tossed in over my head on day one. :site:

BCS

Bering C Sparky said:

For sure, if you get thrown in the deep end you will either learn to swim or you will sink.

But it is much nicer if there is someone to teach you to cup your hands and kick your feet.....and maybe allow you to wade into the pool from the shallow end first, to see what the water feels like.

I can say that this forum is what kept me from sinking when I was tossed in over my head on day one. :site:

BCS

Click to expand...

:site: saved my butt when I was on-call 24/7 as well.

I think I learned the most from the 2-3am calls on systems i'd never seen before. Fun stuff!

All very good advice so far.

Teach him that he does not need to know everything about everything, but needs to know where to look to learn anything about anything.

Knowing where to look for answers is often as important as the answers themselves.

A definite MUST as he gets farther along.
How to stop / start / configure / trouble shoot RSLINX

james