Have been trying to get some end user feedback on this product at PLCTALK.COM but with no results!
Thought I would try here!
It would seem that this company has a very diverse and highly integrated product line encompassing motion, logic and HMI software under a single user program [Automation Studio].
Seeing their phenomal growth must be doing something right.
I cannot seem to find any relevant user forum or even responses from end users!

I am specifically interested in the X20 processor running the Ethernet Powerlink protocol.

SO WHAT'S THE BIG SECRET?
DOES THIS STUFF WORK?
PROS/CONS?

Come on, there has to be someone using this, or is it just another VIRTUAL company?

Hello "BITS".

Where do you see the "phenomonal growth" ?
B&R is one of the small automation players.
It is possible that they do have high growth rates, but you should temper this information with that their initial market share is very small.

Actually, my company does use some B&R stuff, but we are switching away from it.
This is more due to generally streamlining our technological platform than with any dissaftisfaction with B&R.
Apart from products from our own company that uses B&R, I have never seen a B&R PLC out in real life.

Hi Jesper, I would say that a small company that has grown from 60 to 200 Million Euro from 1994-2006, in the very competetive Automation market must be doing something good.
You will never see such growth with the big players [AB, Siemens etc.].

You say you have used some of their products.
Which ones?
What made you select them in the first place even though you no longer plan to use them?
What were your experiences with it?

Questions, Questions, Questions --- BUT nor answers.

THANKS

I have used the 2003 type PLC.
Actually, the decision to use it was done by another division in our company. They did so without consulting us (which made us a little upset).
The product is in the meantime being transferred to us, and we will probably go away from the B&R PLC in order to standardize on one platform.

My opinion about B&R is that it seems quite OK.
The capacity of the CPU is on the low side, but maybe that is because it is not the top model at B&R.
Programming is all IEC1131-3 which may be seens as a plus.
But we never really did work with it in depth.

edit:
I think that it is a handicap that it cannot be a full Profibus DP Master.
If you can accept that it uses CAN as field bus, then it is not a problem. We use Profibus more and more.

I have started to use this system.
I have the PLC embeded in the HMI and X20 I/O on Ethernet (Powerlink).
Good quality product, competitive pricing and the local support is good.
Being IEC 61131-6 + C means you can reuse a lot of code from other systems with only minor modifications.
I have used every major system on the market and some odd balls and this is way better than most.
It is way way better than Siemens & Rockwell (Programming environment) although they don't have the range of systems. However they have the main ones well covered.
Their processors are much faster than Control-Logix.
Networks are; Ethernet, DeviceNet, Profibus, CAN, X2X (their extendable remote backplane, like ControlNet but only better)
They also have a SCADA system (runs on Linux).

The major reason of their growth was the price-possibilities comparison. They are PC based systems with possibilities like web servers, all programming languages, high end visualisations... and they heve had it for some time now.

We dropped the brand out of our shortlist due to the compatibility problems (even on short term). Since their products are PC based they evolve very fast, with lots of possibilities but they can't keep up with development and stay compatible. Since we are a machine builder we want reliable systems with a reasonable (commercial) life cycle. If you have a program written for a machine you will be programming again for the next one....

If it is a one off project, it can be a good solution (but I would prefer Beckhoff if you want a PC-technology based system)

Guys, the only reason why B&R is not known much to public is because B&R doesn't sell PLC's/HMI's on their own, they do complete turnkey projects. It is the largest privately owned Automation Company in the world. The reason why no one talks about it, especially integrators is essentially because of the way they do business. There products are completely catered to the end users' needs and thats why you don't hear many people talk about it.

You're very wrong, B&R is the third biggest PLC provider in Europe behind Siemens and Rockwell.

Hmm..
As far as I know, B&R's world market share is somewhere between 1-2 %. In Europe I expect it to be maybe 3-4%.
Several PLCs come in between Siemens and AB, and B&R. Apart from the japanese, there is also Grp. Schneider.
I am always interested in hard information about market shares, so if you have something to share I would like to know.


Btw. the last post was from 2007.

We changed 2 years ago the hardware PLC by software PLC on all our machines.
For sure, before to replace these hardware PLC, we started a search which product could be more flexible and efficient.
2 suppliers were at the end of our search : B&R and Beckhoff.
Then, we started to make some small test and it was really easy to know which was more flexible .. with Beckhoff, just few seconde to donwload the trial version and the PLC was running on our laptop. With B&R, it was little bit more difficult. Twincat from Beckhoff is really efficient PLC ! After 2 years (around 100 machines), we never get trouble at all on the PLC system. I was really afraid when we started to change our hardware PLC to software PLC but now, for nothing, I will never change it !
This Twincat PLC could be installed on their own Beckhoff computer, but also on another brand computer (B&R is different !).
The communication from an application to the PLC is really easy (using Beckhoff activeX ADSOCX and all the function are including inside and it is totally free of cost). For sure, I tested OPC communication and it works perfectly but I prefer activeX process.
For telemaintenance, we keep the Twincat programming software on the machine (and it is free of cost), then we can make diagnostic and update without any problem.
Well, I don't know now what B&R made 2 years ago, maybe they changed a their sale strategy and their product but before, no chance comparing to Beckhoff system !