New to PLCs

Hey guys,

So I just started an internship at a manufacturing plant and I am beginning a project in which I need to take the temperatures inside 4 ovens (approx 350-450 degrees Fahrenheit) and feed these temperatures to a monitor so that it can be viewed in real-time as a graph for the maintenance people to keep an eye on it and see trends in temperature variation. I have plenty of freedom in HOW I need to get this accomplished, but so far I've just been researching all of my options and I'm narrowing it down to using some sort of thermocouple with a PLC or LabVIEW. My computer already has RSLogix 500 and Crimson 2.0 loaded onto it, so it might be helpful to go with the Rockwell PLCs? Anyways, my question was more about whether or not it is feasible to get this task accomplished with a thermocouple and a PLC hooked up to an HMI, or if there is a smarter or more efficient way to get this done? Also, if the thermocouple is the way to go, what parts are necessary in order to get the data from the thermocouple to the PLC and eventually to the HMI? Thank you guys for any help in advance!

as you are wanting some sort of data aquisition i would go for labview, A PLC is good in control but has limited memory, analog is not the best done with a PLC.

If it doesn't need to tie back to an existing DCS/SCADA system I would just use something like a Yokogawa DX1000 paperless chart recorder. They're pretty much bulletproof and the thermocouples can hook up to them directly. They also have a web server so that you can view them remotely and you can look at the historical data very easily. Also depending on the accuracy your looking for, you may want to consider using RTD's instead. Just my 2 cents

As your application is simple, a PLC is not mandatory, since you don't want to control anything, just monitor.
I would recommend the following architectures, but, since we don't live in the same country, we can find some differences in availability and price.

1 - HMI or SCADA reading directly from temperature converters through a network: you can connect your temperature probes to a converter which has network. In Brazil we have Field Logger from Novus;
2 - HMI with integrated PLC (in Brazil we have Duo from Altus, a long time ago I worked with a Horner model, which is American)
3 - HMI and PLC (please, use a low cost model).
4 - Connect the probes directly to a display;

It depends a lot of your budget.

My computer already has RSLogix 500 and Crimson 2.0 loaded onto it, so it might be helpful to go with the Rockwell PLCs?

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Just having the RSLogix program and even a SLC will not help if that SLC does not already have a Thermocouple Input Module installed with 4 spare channels. Those new TC/mV modules are expensive, and might cost as much as buying a stand-alone device that can read your TCs directly. Only use the PLC if you need to do some calculation (temperature averaging or Max/Min determination) on the temperature data.