Control Panel Pictures

nonuke said:

When we need to make lots of cutouts, we send the panels to a shop nearby were they drill all the holes with a laser cutting machine.

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The customer loaned me their Greenlee square punches, so the enclosure cutouts were a breeze. If I had to make as many holes as you (especially in stainless!), I would definitely farm it out... :nodi:



-Eric

One of my more recent builds, sorry to split it up but the panel is pretty tall and there isn't enough room between machines for me to get it in one pic. Here is top and bottom.
-Dave

PLC upgrade project.

I have just completed my biggest project yet (with the assistance from good colleagues of course).

It was an upgrade of an old plant that had multiple S5-115U racks with some ET100 thrown in. I/O count was in the 1000+ range.

Multiple 944B CPUs were replaced by a single 319 CPU. I/O connected via Profinet + a little bit of Profibus. We used a mix of ET200M and ET200S to fit the new i/o modules into where the old racks used to be.

An old operator panel (programmed in COROS I think) was replaced by three large widescreen HMIs programmed in WinCC Flexible.

There was also some Siwarex modules which were replaced by Siwarex CS modules. I have to say that the Siwarex CS modules I will NEVER use again. I see no idea of having such "intelligent" modules where you have to transfer a lot of configuration data back and forth plus special HMI screens etc. etc. All this just to have a weighing signal into the PLC. The ONLY real advantage of such a system is that you can block the calibration of the module by a jumper that is again blocked by a plate that is sealed to hinder tampering. Important for food and pharma but totally irrelevant for my purposes. Therfore never again.

I wont show you everything, just a picture of one of the panel sections before the upgrade and after the upgrade. Here you are:

(by the way. Bonus question:
There is a "trick" in using ET200M over Profinet. It gives an advantage that can only be achived this way, can you spot it ?)

dploof23 said:

One of my more recent builds, sorry to split it up but the panel is pretty tall and there isn't enough room between machines for me to get it in one pic. Here is top and bottom.
-Dave

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Good looking work!

Eric Nelson said:

The customer loaned me their Greenlee square punches, so the enclosure cutouts were a breeze. If I had to make as many holes as you (especially in stainless!), I would definitely farm it out... :nodi:



-Eric

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Have you seen the TKO cutters from ideal? They really do a nice job.

http://www.idealindustries.com/products/tools_totes/saws_drill_bits/tko.jsp

rootboy said:

Have you seen the TKO cutters from ideal?

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Interesting... $28 on Amazon for the 7/8". I may have to buy one and try! Thanks for spending my money...



-Eric

Eric Nelson said:

Interesting... $28 on Amazon for the 7/8". I may have to buy one and try! Thanks for spending my money...



-Eric

Click to expand...

You'll love them. They make an incredibly clean cut in just about anything (including stainless). As for spending your money, no problem! Can I get my shipping address included in that arrangement?

rootboy said:

Good looking work!

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Thank you!

IMO this is the next great thing for control panels http://www.eaton.com/Electrical/USA/ProductsandServices/AutomationandControl/Connectivity/index.htm

Document is attached

I wish rockwell and others would pickup this technology also. This would be great to have the smartwire DT gateway on ethernet IP. This would be very cool in logix 5000.

I think it would make panels cleaner and easier to troubleshoot.

File was too big but it's on the site link.

This would be great to have the smartwire DT gateway on ethernet IP. This would be very cool in logix 5000.

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You can.

I am not so sure I am fond of a solution that uses ribbon cables.
We have some load cell modules with ribbon cables between them, and if one ribbon cable connector is not optimally installed, you have a beastly time locating it, and you need special tools and/or spare ribbon cable to fix it etc.

So can bubba change a off/fwd switch to rev/off/fwd and wire in the extra reversing contactor? Or would he need to call a systems engineer to change the hardware configuration in the controller?
Would bubba also have to call this engineer at 2am in the morning to install a new switch that went faulty becuase all they had in staock was a 3 pos'n when they needed a 2 pos'n?
I hope this doesn't take off...

HJTRBO said:

So can bubba change a off/fwd switch to rev/off/fwd and wire in the extra reversing contactor? Or would he need to call a systems engineer to change the hardware configuration in the controller? ...

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Not sure but IMO that sounds like project work and engineering should be involved anyways.

HJTRBO said:

Would bubba also have to call this engineer at 2am in the morning to install a new switch that went faulty becuase all they had in staock was a 3 pos'n when they needed a 2 pos'n?

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I am not sure how easy or not the system is to change or program but also IMO not having the correct parts in stock to support the equipment is a maintenance management issue.

You really should not have to make machine mods in the middle of the night. If you do then someone is not doing their job.

Pictures showing build phases

This shows our design/build process and the completed panel before going in the cabinet.