BTEC Engineering

Hi all I currently study Engineering at college and I need a little assistance on finding information to compare for two contrasting Industrial PLC systems. Those said systems are a liquid level process (a pump station system for waste plants) and a household electric heater.

Info on the following features and requirements are necessary in the report for my assignment:

-Power supplies
-CPU
-Unitary vs Modular controllers
-Input interfaces
-Output interfaces
-Peripheral input devices
-Peripheral output devices
-PLC scans

Identification of improvements to both systems also are needed.
The whole assignment is just really confusing so I really would appreciate some assistance

2 floats or probes for pump station control.
Thermostat for heater.

No need for plc.

Job done.

Keep it simple

I'm afraid its not that simple, I am required to explain it, not that I want to, its an assignment and I have to complete it

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!
I would say +1 to cookie_cookie. That's correct that you don't really need a PLC for either of those projects. Especially the home electric heater. However if one wanted bells and whistles for the pump station, and I've worked at a water utility, then there could be a lot of analog I/O from and to instrumentation, and that could be sent to a SCADA system. It appears to me that your instructor is perhaps looking for something that isn't clear in your OP. Wish you the best in your studies. Cheers!!

Hi A7MAGGEDON

A lot of that information is dependant on your systems requirements, ie program scan times are dependsnt on CPU Load and Speed.

You could take 2 similar systems from 2 different vendors and make a comparison that way once you know what your exact requirements are.

Small PLC's.
Siemens: S7- 200, S7-1200
Mitsubishi: FX
Allen Bradley: MicroLogix, Compact Logix.

Large/ Expandable PLCs.
Siemens: S7-300, S7-1500
Mitsubishi: Q, L, iQR
Allen Bradley: CompactLogix.


Regards

Daniel