History of PLCs

Hello, I'm new here.

I need some help, I've problems finding the year of production of these PLCs:

AB SLC500
AB Control Logix
MODICON Quantum
GE Fanuc 90-20
GE Fanuc 90-30
GE Fanuc 90-70
GE Fanuc Series One
GE Fanuc Series Six
HIMA H41q
HIMA H51q
Siemens/TI 505

Any help will be apreciated, Thanks.

Why is it important which year they were made in? Some of those models have been around for some fairly long period of time. I do not see the need for year of manufacture.

But I need it

Thanks for the reply, We are developing a tool to "calculate" the obsolescense of some equipments using (date, I/O, Men, COM), you have any other susgestion?

Thanks.

I don't think you can calculate the obsolescense. Each mfg. determines that based on demand and whether or not there is a new replacement.

In the case of the TI-505, there hasn't been any major developments since Siemens bought them. Yet you can still buy them. However, I was informed last year that the 505 line is going away soon. Siemens is pushing us to upgrade to S7. I do not know the exact year they came out, but my plant has a TI-565 that was installed in 1986, and is still running.


Ken

I've been told that Allen-Bradley supports products at least 7 years after they officially make them obsolete, a requirement for certain government contracts. Some other manufacturers kill support right away and try to push you into the new products. And then there are products which haven't changed in ages. Does that factor into your calculation?

AK

Of the point of vision -Programmers PLC , tree genealogy.
Possible add exact info?

Is this a prelude to planned obsolesence? I have to agree with randy. Sometimes management spents too much time worrying about the wrong things. A local machinery manufacturing company has the third and fourth generations running it. #4 went to a big city school, decided to offer early retirement with a big buy out to all the seasoned sales engineers. Replaced them with buddies from college, mostly bankers. The old pro's had contacts, connections, and rapport. The bamkers have beemers (BMW's), Lexi (more than one Lexus), and tennis lessons. Their sales have become almost non-existant, as the bankers can't talk technical, when they actually do find a potential customer to talk to.

ENOUGH RANT, back to the thread...

I saw on a post last night a guy has several new Sharks and D100's. Lots of new old stock shows up on eBay.

The GE 9030's and 9070's were in production when I started using them in 1996, and are still being manufactured. When the VersaMax line came out in 1998, I thought it was going to be the demise of the 9030's, but it hasn't happened yet. In fact, they still come out with a new module or CPU each year. I could see the 9070 line slipping away with the introduction of the new PACs system, for over the courde of a couple of years.

Take GE's Series 1, they introduced it in 1983. It was actually a Koyo SR21 in a black case (rather than yellow). While GE doesn't sell them anymore, Koyo (became PLC Direct, now Automation Direct, still sells them, now as the 305 series). Texas Instrument called their version the 305 series, and Siemans called theirs the Simatic T1305 series.

So technically, the Series 1 is still plugging away, and with as many Koyos (ETC) that are out there, I think A-D would be foolish to stop making them.They are not the fanciest or easiest PLC out there, but they still work.

enough dribble, now someone else's turn.....casey

So often we get questions that are very "wide-open" and/or ambiguous.

Those are hard to answer.

The more obtuse and ambiguous the question the more obtuse and ambiguous the answer is likely to be, or at least, should be.

Then, once in a while, a guys asks a simple, straight-forward question.

The responses...?

What's wrong with you?
Why do you need that?
Let me re-phrase your question into something I can answer.

Bull.

A straight question deserves a straight answer.

Give him a straight answer or shut-up.

1991/1992/1986/1978/1993/1996/1998 I will certainly not give them in order, you gonna have to work a little.

So Terry, what is your answer to this guys simple question?

akreel said:

I've been told that Allen-Bradley supports products at least 7 years after they officially make them obsolete, a requirement for certain government contracts. Some other manufacturers kill support right away and try to push you into the new products. And then there are products which haven't changed in ages. Does that factor into your calculation?

AK

Click to expand...

Have a look at the silver series on the AB site. From the AB site: "it is our goal to provide repair services and technical support for these products for at least seven years."

Hello to everyone.
Its a simple cuestion!
Give me the year!

A Simple answer?
1991/1992/1986/1978/1993/1996/1998
but its too simple for me.

JEJEJE, Kuess please, I don't have any idea about the year of production. If you have that information, or can tell me how you get it? buy I can't guess that info.

A beter Simple answer:
...GE's Series 1, they introduced it in 1983... Thanks kc9ih.

Perhaps one obsolescense "rating" don't make any sence, but I thik it worth to try it.

One more to the list!
MODICON 984

a then we got:
MODEL | Year
--------------------------------------------
AB PLC5 | 1985
AB SLC500 | ?
AB Control Logix | ?
MODICON 984 | ?
MODICON Quantum | ?
GE Fanuc 90-20 | ?
GE Fanuc 90-30 | ?
GE Fanuc 90-70 | ?
GE Fanuc Series One | 1983
GE Fanuc Series Six | ?
HIMA H41q | ?
HIMA H51q | ?
Siemens/TI 505 | ?

Any other coments? or Years? will be apreciated.

GE Fanuc Series 90-20, 90-30, 90-70 were introduced in 1990. The Series Six came out in 1980.

I would be interested in what you come up with for "obsolescence" based on the criteria you defined. Please post your results. Some of those GE Fanuc models have already been discontinued. Is that included in your calculations? How will your calculation handle a model like the Series One that's still available, but under a different name?

doesnot matter

The year a product was introduced does not relate to the lifespan of the product.

My experience has been that obsolesence is caused more by the chip manufacturers than it is by the manufacturers of PLCs.

Modicon 984 - 1984 second generation I/O still available
Modicon Quantum - 1994 currently in third generation

Thanks Jim and Steve.

Steve, If the models are dscotinued and don't have support they will get a maximum obsolesense rating. About the diferent name, depends on the support avaliable, if that brand have a representant/dealer on my country. Sure I will post the results, and then I can learn from your points of view.

I'm agree with you Jim. But I can't analyse each CPU data sheet of each series to try to estimate the obsolesence. I will be dificult to me, for example, compare a 80286 with some model of motorola. But I still believe that the year can give me a clue of obsolesence.

The criteria (I'm working on that), will be based on something like this:

-Year of tech.
-It's manufactured today?.
-Support.(Good/Fair/Bad/No avaliable). This will be relative to representant/dealer.
-Information about the instalation, Instaled I/O, Program Memory, Comm protocols needed(in the near future).
-Sometimes the software isn't user frendly enough to the personal, and them recomend the equipment to be replaced.

I'm trying the criteria to be based on previus experiences of the client with the diferent brands and models. Documents like Reports and recomendations, consulting, projects. May be useful info about the most preferable(for the client) PLCs for new projects.

Thanks msinclair you give a very useful information.


Any other coments or sugestions?

I apologyse for my bad english.

What we have at this moment.

AB PLC5 | 1985
AB SLC500 | ?
AB Control Logix | ?
MODICON 984 | 1984
MODICON Quantum | 1994
GE Fanuc 90-20 | 1990
GE Fanuc 90-30 | 1990
GE Fanuc 90-70 | 1990
GE Fanuc Series One | 1983
GE Fanuc Series Six | 1980 <- this one is older than series one?
HIMA H41q | ?
HIMA H51q | ?
Siemens/TI 505 | ?