Compact Logix Hardware Question

This is more of an opinion question than anything. I am working on a quote for a 3 story vacuum material handling system. When I say 3 story I mean that it will have a pickup on 3 different floors with 3 recievers on one floor and 3 vacuum pumps in a different area.

The load stations on floors 1 thru 3 have gates and operator staions to start and stop the system. There is only 1 station per floor.

The Receivers are on the first floor and have a bulk bag filler. The vacuum pumps appear to be going into another area (possibly the basement).


My thought is to use a Compact Logic PLC (L3 or L4) and remote I/O ( haven't decided between Point I/O and Flex I/O. I also plan on using 4 Red Lion G3 panels. 1 6" G3 at each Load station and 1 10" or 15" at the bulk bag feeder. The operators should only need to mess with the pumps whenever there is an issue so other than manual controls (hand start stop) I do not see any reason for a HMI. I plan on linking all the HMI's via ethernet. I linked more in the past with no issue. My gray area is really the PLC configuration. This system may have to double in size at a later date and I do not want to paint myself into a corner.

Now with all that said, I was wondering what others do with a project like this. I also would like to know what if any limitations there is using a eitherneti/p network for my remote drops.


Thanks,
Clay

Look at the number of connections yous se going to use. How many remote racks are you going to use total?

Number of drops will be 4 to 6 depending on how the vacuum pumps are located. This will double once the second phase goes in. I do not think 12 drops on a Ethernet/Ip network is much but I have limited experience so i wondered if I was missing anything.

Are you counting the physical connections? I ASSuME so.

You need to look at Rack Optimization here is the Technote that I found on the KB

http://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21339/kw/rpi