what so special about alan bradly

hello everyone i am P.L.c new commer for instance and i hear about a brand name alan bradly, i spoke to my plc trainer and he didn't told me why most plc personel love to us alan bradly.

Allen Bradley is the biggest.

Are they the best? Maybe.

Are they the most cost effective? NO!

Should you use them? That's your choice.

Do I use them? From time to time.

They are world wide, and lots of people know how to use them.

It is hard to argue with success.

cole4eve said:

most plc personel love to us alan bradly.

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Well, that statement is debateable at best!

I like Allen Bradley, but they aren't my favorite brand - AutomationDirect.com is. Allen Bradley (A-B) PLCs are probably tied for second with GE in my personal favorites list.

Allen Bradley is many guy's favorite, though, because they are the market leader. Modicon invented the PLC, but Allen Bradley arguably popularized it by making it part of a respected controls and electrical machinery product line that had everything from MCCs to pilot lights. After Modicon's successive owners shot themselves in the foot A-B got the overwhelming majority market share. They did this by combining good products, good quality, and good support with a large and well trained distributor network, although they never claimed to be the low price leader!

Rockwell screwed them up a little after the Bradley family sold the business, but in the last few years it seems to me that they are getting back to the standards that made them market leader.

As far as "love to use A-B", well, opinion is what makes a horse race, isn't it?

From my over 10 years experiense:
1. You must know Allen Bradley since working with it is next to unavoidable.
2. Never choose Allen Bradley for a project if the choise is yours.

Use what you like and what you can.

I'm relatively new to the block, but you will not be able to avoid Allen Bradley, even if you want to. Their everywhere. I've only worked to two facilities. The first plant had everyone...AB, Seimens, Fanuc, Mitsubishi, and others. They each had their good and bad points. It all depends on what you like to use and work with. The plant I'm in now has standardized on AB everything. Less parts to have on had. Less little quirks to remember about all the differnt PLC's and software. But it limits your experience and learning considerably. However the service and tech support can't be beat.

My two cents.

Sportster

Casey forgot to add---

If you can work an AB it's probably going to be easier to find your next PLC job, although you could say that about GE, AD, and Seimens as well.

In my experience, AB is often specified by consultants and the like who dont actually know much more about them then the basics. It's just a name they know everybody will recognize and trust.

What's so special? ControlLogix. Motion control, ethernet, asychranous, user defined tags. Other then that, not a hell of a lot.

For lot of projects AB is just spending monay.When you come to a project which need communications,math,memeory,and advanced abilitys.Go for AB.And be ready to pay for that.
AB have huge markting machine which run all the power and grabs everyone.
The bottom line,you can not ignore then.

what about misubishi guys? That is my first choice but is that becuase IM in the uK?

Best PLC

There is no best PLC. Some companies are taking out their GE and putting in Modicon, others are changing their AB for GE. In most cases, whoever designed the system, puts in what they are familliar with. Some companies require the PLC to be what is already in use. AB is everywhere. So is Modicon. I am seeing more propietary systems now. PCs are now being used more often. They are cheaper and in most cases faster. There are many long threads here talking about this. The future is going to be very interesting..

Hi,

Alan Bradly, Siemens, Telemechanique. First of all it depends in which part of the world you're living. Here in Europe we work mostly with Siemens, except the France people they propably use Telemechanique.
Secondly everyone has it's on favourit. In my case it's not A-B, it's not Telemechanique and it's certainly not Siemens. The best PLC-DCS systems I worked with is Delta-V. So you see it depends on partly were you live and partly what's your favourit.

Rudi

Rudi

I never meat Delta V I saw EH SS and others.
EH supposed to be the latest model.
Could you please send me link for that.

Thanks

sportster said:

However the service and tech support can't be beat.

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Thats the key, right there. No matter who the vendor is, if there is a lack of support it shines bad on the vendor.

The last two weeks, Siemens is on our sh$t last; failed Soft Starter and motor contacter. All replaced under warranty but their response time is pretty crappy compared to A-B (at least in this neck of the woods). Also tech support for software products is frustrating. Call them up, get a case number, talk to a tech rep, and when they hang up they close the case # even if the problem is not fixed. So the next time you call, you have to bring the new tech support guy up to speed on what you're trying to get fixed and that slows the process down to a crawl.

Service and support its depend how pepole are avliable and inventory .

I was in Boston and needed for 2 I/O card for SLC the local rep did not have it in stock,
So he told me to wait until monday(it was on friday).Nothing he can do.

No rep outside Boston was willing to ship it to Boston (territory problem).
I flight it from Israel on the next day.
So it all depend.........