Safety Controllers - Opinions

[becs 0]

I am upgrading a machine to be compliant to provincial safety standards and planning to use a programmable safety controller rather than a pile of safety relays. I've been looking at the AB SmartGuard 600 and the Siemens 3RK3 MSS. The previous controls engineer already put a Siemens MSS in and we already have the software, while the software for for the SmartGuard is free under RSNetWorx (can use in demo mode as long as you're 6 nodes or under). I don't really have any experiance with either. It's a bit more of a pain to get into the logic for the SmartGuard, but once there seems easier to break up and follow. I'm probably missing stuff with the MSS programming, but it certainly doesn't seem as user friendly. I would like to go with the SmartGuard, but already having one MSS is holding me back....but if I'm going to make a change in what we'll be using in the future this is the time to do it. Anyone have experiance with either/both of these controllers? Pros and Cons? Thanks, Rebecca

[ianbuckley 0]

Siemens is showing a webinar today hosted by a third party controls engineer comparing A-B vs. Siemens safety. The webinar registration is full, but it will be posted for viewing in a few days. It is being shown by Siemens, so I will wait to see how objective it really is, but it is probably worth a look. Personally, I have never used the middle ground, only safety relays (several different brands) or straight to the Siemens F series processors, so not much help on your question directly. In general, RSLogix is more intuitive than Step 7 (to North American thinking anyway), but once you use Step 7 a while, it gets easier and it has some nice features. Hope This Helps, Ian

[becs 0]

I guess that's where my hessitation comes in. I've mostly used Step 7 over the past few years and the more I use it the better it becomes. I know all about the hessitation to switch from AB to Siemens though. The more I play around with the Siemens ES software the crankier I get. My main issus is labeling anything. Not that the RSNetWorx is amazing, but with the size of the program I need to write it's starting to be impossible to follow. It's hard to say if I'm missing something or not though. I still have to talk with my Siemens rep, give him a chance to convince me. We'll see.