a new foundry controlled by PLC and don't know what to do, waiting for ur help?

hi everybody,
we have a new foundry that is controlled with PLC by Siemens S7 300, I'd like to ask :
should we have the plc program code or not or we just use the software through the touch panel.(but what happens if something goes badly to software?)
I've asked the plc programmer about if there's something goes wrong in the software what should I do, or if something goes badly in the plc components how I know or what should I do? he told me that there's nothing goes wrong in the plc or the software,
so I really don't know what will face me and I'd like to know what he should give me to face what may happen?what should I ask the company who sold us the program and everything to do?
please reply to me, u r the experts

enas

enasesh said:

hi everybody,
we have a new foundry that is controlled with PLC by Siemens S7 300, I'd like to ask :
should we have the plc program code or not or we just use the software through the touch panel.(but what happens if something goes badly to software?)
I've asked the plc programmer about if there's something goes wrong in the software what should I do, or if something goes badly in the plc components how I know or what should I do? he told me that there's nothing goes wrong in the plc or the software,
so I really don't know what will face me and I'd like to know what he should give me to face what may happen?what should I ask the company who sold us the program and everything to do?
please reply to me, u r the experts

enas

Click to expand...

He must be the best programmer in the world, if NOTHING goes wrong with his code.

Youre options are:

- enter a service contract with the programmer
OR
- setup remote support using modems, or preferably a VPN connection
OR
- purchase a laptop with the S7 software and have an inhouse maintenance guy get trained

I am sometimes amazed at how many questions there are we have this PLC but we cannot fix it (lost password, the vendor died, etc etc etc)

GET THE SOFTWARE
GET THE PROGRAM both a paper printout and TWO disks (one in fire proof safety deposit box at bank or other separate location)
Now if anything goes wrong you have it all. At this stage you can go with original provider, do it yourself, or get someone else.

Dan Bentler

Only fools believe us programers ....
1. Mistakes always happen
2. Improvements will come down the pike
3. You will want someone on your staff that understands the software over time, invest in training your best asset - your people
4. Buy the software after they return from a training class
5. Have your people work with the vendor when they are on-site (don't allow the vendor to work without your people tagging along ... it's free training)
5. Train some more
6. Take baby step with your people on programming they will not learn over night. Seimens in quite a bear to learn.

It is well worth the investment to your company in the long run. The going rate where I live is $185.00 per hour plus per diem for a tech to sit behind a laptop. So,in the long run your people can save you some serious money. I have made a lot of money in my life sitting there as well as many others on this forum. And hope to continue to in the days to come.

Dear friend,
I have previous experiance of working in Siemens PLC operated Foundry. It was supplied by Kunkel Wegner ( Germany ). Although it was running on older version of Seimens PLC S5-115 CPU but it has many problems & we used to connect it through STEP5 very often inorder to reset flags. As you already know foundry process is a continuous movement of Pallets. You will first put the sand in empty boxes then impressions are to made for core & core less boxes, then holes will be drilled in core less box, then the cores are fitted by an automatic machine machine, then boxes will be closed & melt iron is poured. After that cooling & extraction of mold. The reason of saying so much is it is fully a cyclic operation i.e. each step depends upon completion of previous step. If a single signal misses the line will stop & need to initialize. We used to reload the programs many times due to faults & had been given to all the accesses by manufacturer. Apart from that from my last experiance where we converted Relay logic based American foundry line to S7-300 based fully automatic line I really feel you should insisit on having the Step 7 latest version & also insist for extensive training because as per my experiance understanding of STL based programming in Steps will be very much benificial to you for smooth running of Plant.