What training do i need to know to become a PLC engineer?

[Peter Nachtwey]

I learned a heck of a lot when employed as an applications sales engineer.

I spend a lot of time doing applications support. Usually it is before the sale. I need to convince the customer there is a solution. One gets involved in many different types of applications and I think it is a much better position to be in that to be stuck in a factory where you see the same things day after day and your unused skills disappear.

I still like getting involved in new projects that are kind of different. After many years a lot of projects are simply variations of the same old thing.

Doing system integration is good too if you work on different types of projects.

I don't mind when people knock engineers. I know there are good one and bad ones. I still haven't found a system with a transfer function stamped on it. In my opinion almost every system is kludged or at best 'evolved'.

 

[BobB]

It is quite funny in a way as I have re-designed the control system for the cranes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (never worked with a crane before in my life), automated base power stations, written specification outlines for consultant engineers ( will probably see them cut and pasted for the next 20 years if I live that long), had jobs handed to me on a plate by consultant engineers because others could not even get their heads around what was required. Plenty of other history for difficult systems integration jobs as well.
I am actually more qualified in management than in my trade - I have business, marketing and logistics management degrees but still a silly old electrical fitter!

 

[jvdcande]

Question What training do i need to know to become a PLC engineer?

I have been a trainer in this field for over 16 years and I still have to meet the first PLC engineer. All people I have met in training were electricians (from different levels) who needed PLC knowledge as part of their competences. All of them had to be able to troubleshoot the PLC as well as knowing the wiring, the drives and so on. In short, everybody had to know enough about everything in the installation to do their thing. But for nobody it was limited to PLC only.

Before I became a trainer I was a machine builder and my duties there started on the drawing board and ended at the running machine, provided it ran without errors for at least two weeks. Drilling holes to fix sensors, running the cables into conduits (after installing those), programming, troubleshooting, pneumatics, electronics, all of this was included in my job description.

So the more you know, the better you become as a "PLC engineer".

Good luck and kind regards,

 

[Tom Jenkins]

Peter's first comment pretty much nailed it.

If you look at the questions on this site, a great many are not about programming technique or even PLC hardware. They are about field dvices and sensors and how the process operates. Once you uderstand those things, the progamming is comparatively easy. Then you will be a Controls Engineer, or Control System Designer.

I've never had a PLC course, and the only electrical engineering class I had was a couple "baby circuts" in college as part of my Mechanical Engineer training. The most important skills I've needed in my career I learned as a kid on the farm: persistence, attention to detail, pride in my work, logical thinking, goal oriented activity, planning, cause and effect relationships, and so on.