Benefits and Limitations of an AB?

bert123

Member
Join Date
Oct 2018
Location
England
Posts
4
Hi all, so I need a little help with knowing the benefits and Limitations of using the Allen Bradley slc 500 system when being used to programme a basic conveyor belt system.

For benefits, all I have is that this PLC is expandable and are industrial meaning there tough. For limitations, I know that the Allen Bradley slc 500 system doesn't have a good memory and of course, AB's are expensive.

Any other things I could talk about?

Thanks.
 
That's because it is.

Traditionally we are very hard on students who post their homework questions while making little or no effort to answer them or who conceal that they are HNC class questions.

But I'll play along.

SLC-500 is a "mature" product. The first controllers came out in the late 1980's and the most popular modern model, the SLC-5/05, was introduced in 1993.

That means it's durable, and in wide use. Walk into a factory in North America and there are probably SLC's and call up a systems integrator and somebody will have the toolset and know how to use them.

But that's North America. In other parts of the world, Siemens or Mitsubishi or Omron are the leading brands that have the same degree of wide adoption and familiarity.

The popular brands are not just tough and well tested, their wide adoption, long life, and broad availability mean that they can typically provide longer service without breakdown, and that parts will be available for a long time and on short notice.

If I had an SLC-500 controller module fail today, I could have a replacement in two or three hours because there's a stocking distributor in my city. Even the fastest Internet-only distributors would take a day. In some situations, a day doesn't matter. In others, the difference in parts cost could be eaten up in a few minutes of downtime.
 
Traditionally we are very hard on students who post their homework questions while making little or no effort to answer them or who conceal that they are HNC class questions.

But I'll play along.

SLC-500 is a "mature" product. The first controllers came out in the late 1980's and the most popular modern model, the SLC-5/05, was introduced in 1993.

That means it's durable, and in wide use. Walk into a factory in North America and there are probably SLC's and call up a systems integrator and somebody will have the toolset and know how to use them.

But that's North America. In other parts of the world, Siemens or Mitsubishi or Omron are the leading brands that have the same degree of wide adoption and familiarity.

The popular brands are not just tough and well tested, their wide adoption, long life, and broad availability mean that they can typically provide longer service without breakdown, and that parts will be available for a long time and on short notice.

If I had an SLC-500 controller module fail today, I could have a replacement in two or three hours because there's a stocking distributor in my city. Even the fastest Internet-only distributors would take a day. In some situations, a day doesn't matter. In others, the difference in parts cost could be eaten up in a few minutes of downtime.

Well Ken I can say one thing about your answer as it relates to homework, if he "cuts and pastes" it the instructor will know he's cheating.
Very well said and great points. What I would add is that although the SLC5/05 is a mature product it is still listed as active on Rockwell's website meaning there is no "discontinue" date. Having said that I'm guessing that a majority of sales of new SLC5/05 are for replacement, not new systems.
 
Kudos to Ken,
In my dotage I teach maintenance classes. I have had students that have had PLC classes at the local Community College from professors that have never been inside an industrial plant. Because of this site Bert 123 likely now knows more than his prof.
 
Are you sure you mean SLC-500 and not RS-logix 500? RS-logix 500 is the programming software for the micrologix line. The SLC-500 series (hardware) is being phased out, I believe. They are pushing to compact logix.

If you mean RS-logix 500 software, it is basic, but very capable. A controller isn't altogether expensive - I think a micrologix 1400 can be had for $500 or so. The downside to using this is limited ethernet support and you could reach maximum I/O easily depending on complexity of the application.

A compact logix (RS-logix 5000 software) would be a step up - both in capability and price. You have greater I/O options, and you have the flexibility of remote-IO over ethernet. You can also communicate with other sensors, drives, etc over ethernet and save I/O.
 
At least its not a PLC 5... Although I think the damn PLC 5 where I used to work is Immortal. With power failures we lost some SLC parts, Micrologix stuff... but the PLC 5.. Never.

I've seen multiple PLC-5 submerged in rainwater and survive. The obsolete servo amplifiers in those panels didn't fare nearly as well.
 

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