FESTO Vs Siemens

Our enterprise is evaluating the possibility of replacing old S5 PLC's form Siemens with new PLC´s from FESTO. Considering the size of the inversion (around 70CPUs, 600 modules) the price is a very important factor.

FESTO has very good prices. But FESTO its very new in the PLC's area. Its very important to our company to heard the experiences from other enterprises using FESTO PLC's.

What do you think? It is possible to replace the siemens with Festo? FESTO PLC's seems to be more prepared to using Ethernet.

I would aprecciate any help.

Thanks,
Alex

Alex,

the hardware is only one part of the cost. If you're converting from Siemens S5 to Festo you'll have to rewrite all your programs. If you convert to S7-300s the conversion is a lot easier. Most S5 instructions have a direct S7 counterpart. Step7 even has a tool to directly translate from S5 to S7. This tool can translate most programs automatically. Only if you're using some special features of the S5 you have to convert those manually, but even then you're made aware of the possibilities and needs. You even get hints how to translate.

Ethernet is also not a problem with S7-300. An Ethernet module (CP343-1IT) with an integrated webserver is available, so you could see the status of the machine with a simple browser.

Kind regards,

Thanks for your help Jean Pierre.

Leaving the costs aside. What other important factors would you consider in the selection of PLC's? All new PLC's seems to have enough memory, expansion capabilities, fast processing speed.

What about quality and reliability in time?. Siemens has very good references. We have been using Siemens for a long time. I have seen those CPUs working under water! What about FESTO quality?

Do you know about other companies using FESTO?

Thanks,

Alejandro D. Rigatuso
Electrical Engineer
Engineering Department
EDASA

Festo manufactures pneumatic components, and IMO, they're very good at it... :nodi:

Unless their PLCs operate on air, I wouldn't even consider Festo when it comes to PLCs...

beerchug

-Eric

I've been in contact with them FESTO PLC many times.

I call them PLCs

The odd thing is that they call them Valve Controlers.

They are PLC with there own logic but the modules are pneumatic valves.

The fact that they would sell them with no valve mounted should not really be a surprise.

Personaly I would NEVER purchase them. Its not a question of the quality of the equipment but more of the availability of the knowledge base.

Who do you know uses them?

The answer is in the question.

When you purchase cheap stuff, you end-up with cheap system and you can only sell them to cheap clients.

Hello!
Festo is not new in PLC:s! We trained on Festo PLC:s in school ~1994.
They had three different languages to program with.
I remember that it was really easy to use.

However I would not recommend these PLC:s for any bigger applications than small eg. pneumaticapplications.

You should also consider the range of parts you can get for your system, siemens has all the parts you can imagine. Also siemens has offices all around the world if you need spareparts or thechnical help.

Also I think that you will get problems finding people who actually can program these Festo PLC:s.

Thats funny, I also encountered FESTO plcs in a training seminar (1988 I think).
But I have never seen a FESTO PLC in "real" life.

Normally I root for the little guy. But not when it comes to select a PLC. Its like the choise between PC operating systems. There is Windows, Apple, Linux, which one to pick hmmmmm.... oh well I think its going to be Windows, AGAIN.
I just checked FESTOs controllers on their homepage. It does not look good. I would not even consider FESTO PLCs if I had a lot of pneumatics. As a matter of fact, I am pussled how you can even start to compare FESTO and Siemens. There are other alternatives that would seem more appropriate.

Alex,
if you could describe your existing system a little more (what does it do, what is the hardware layout, etc.) then we can guide you a lot better.

Hi,
Go with S7, As Jean Pierre says you have the S5/S7 conversion tool for simpler applications, I personally have just ripped out a Festo PLC & 160 I/O and replaced it with a S7300. Why? Unrelability! Failed CPU 's/Cards and Poor UK Support.

Even if you dont choose siemens, Stick to one of the major manufacturers. If you dont you will suffer in terms of support and possibly Spares availability.

Hope this Helps

Steve

now when I read Jesper's and the others opinion, I realize, that maybe FESTO plcs are only for training purposes


could it be....


Arigatuso,

Jean pierre gave a nice solution, whether siemens or any other "known" manufacturer, will be better and more cost effective, cause when the end user (custormer,technician,etc) need to change or modify the system,for any reason,he will get technical support,spare parts ,etc.


just my opinion.

good luck.


best regards.Khalil

Hi,
I feel the need to defend the Festo controllers. I've been working with Festo myself for about 5 years, our company works with Festo all over Europe. We have here about 100 machines almost all running on Festo (203, 405, FEC, PS1/HC20, CPX). The old 203 controllers are over 12 years old and still work perfectly.
We've made all kind machines starting from 10 I/O's till 2000 I/O's. We have here installations with 9 PS1/HC20 controllers, all connected in a Ethernet network with a PC. I/O's are connected with Festo Fieldbus, 4 robots are controlled by the PLC's with Profibus. The PC has a Visual Basic program to visualize and captize data, the protocol used to connect is WinSock, wich is a lot easier to use that OPC-server with S7.
We also use Festo Checkbox. These linescan or matrix camera's are used for part recognition and quality control.
All Servo-pneumatical steerings are Festo SPC100 or SPC200, when they are configured as they should, there no noise!
For visualizing every machines is equiped with a ABG1, ABG80 or FED90 display.
So you can say that were quit experienced with Festo. So far I won't trade with any other. The only problem untill now is that the PS1 controller still works on a DOS background wich also means that there not much memory, this is only a problem when you want to store big files on the controller. But the future controllers are not based on DOS anymore.
The only problem may be finding skilled personel, but learning Festo is very easy.
Greeting,
Heino

It's nice to see that if it goes personal, then people who probably only read PLCS.NET, will register and make their first reply. Sorry if Iam wrong.

Howcome you have started to look at FESTO and no other PLC Brands? FESTO is a little odd. Do you have a FESTO sales guy living next door? If you are looking at alternatives to Siemens maybe you should evaluate other brands such ad AllenB, GEFanuc, Mitsubishi etc.


But personally I would go for Siemens considering the programming work.

As with most replies here the obvious solution would appear to be to go Siemens s5 -s7 unless you want the experience of learning the new language.
If you find the cost of the job works better by converting to Festo then do it in stages and convert 1 to evaluate the task ahead.

It's nice to see that if it goes personal, then people who probably only read PLCS.NET, will register and make their first reply. Sorry if Iam wrong.

Click to expand...

Actually I had a question about Beckhoff, that's how I got here for the first time. But I can understand you're remark.

Howcome you have started to look at FESTO and no other PLC Brands? FESTO is a little odd

Click to expand...

When I started working with the company Festo was allready our supplier for over 8 years. At first it seemed an odd choise but now I can fully understand it.
I'm not trying to convince anyone, I'm just saying that sometimes its worth to go for the less known. My experience with Siemens so far isn't that good, we hardly get any response when asking them for help. When we get someone here from Siemens, they cost a lot of money and don't get the job done. The advantage is that there more than enough other company's that have the knowledge we need and far more cheaper than those of Siemens.