A/B Test bench

[Mrclk 0]

Hi everyone: I am looking for some advice. I am currently working for a bottleling company. I am in charge of maintaining three production lines which are broken down to about 50 individual pieces of equipment. All of our PLCs are Allen Bradley. We have mostly control logix 5000s a few SLCs and I believe 1 PLC 5. We are running several different style HMIs in the plant. Most of the equipment is German made(Krones Inc.) and their HMIs are power panels made by B&R automation. We of course have American made machinery which uses Panel views 300 and 500s. We also have Italian made machines which use the newer version Panel views 1500+. On the more complex applications we have units running on Ifix and Wonderware. So there you are, we are using all allen bradley PLCs and a few different OIPs. In addition to PLCs and HMIs we also have servo drives, VFDs, sensors of many kinds, stand alone electronic controllers, laser coders, video jet printers and everything you can think of that can be used in the bottleling industry, well almost everything. The advice I am seeking from all you gurus is. keeping in mind that my office is not very big. I would like to set up a test bench which would include a PLC rack, a few lights, maybe a small air cylinder a drive a motor with position sensors and or an encoder, you know something to simulate an actual process. and a touch screen(more thatn likely a power panel). Is anyone have a similar set up that you work with. This unit would be in place mainly for instrument testing pourposes and tentativelly for training of new recruits. Any ideas will be appreciated.

[TimWilborne 108]

I always like to used the spare parts approach to test benches and trainers. You are not going to loose that much life of your product by having them powered up in the office compared to collecting a 1/4" of dust in a stock room. If you are running Controllogix then it is a good idea to have a spare power supply, processor, I/O, and maybe a motion card. The only thing you would be missing is a chassis. Use them for your test bench and if you need them in the plant go pull them out of it. This way the only true cost of your test bench is a chassis. Since you say a few SLCs it may not be as easy to justify a setup like this. I would suggest purchasing a Micrologix 1100 in place of it. The instructions are similar, uses RsLogix 500, has a few I/O, analog, and a Ethernet port

[Mrclk 0]

Thanks that sounds like a good plan. Do you have a layout of how all components could be mounted on a test bench unit? We have most of these components in hand, I just need to figure out a way to set them up nice and neatly on a work bench and make them work! I also wanted to ask. We are in the process of aquiring an oscilloscope, what unit would you recommend to use in this industrial type environment? Portability is a big factor, we want to be able to do in field troubleshooting. We were looking at a Fluke 124 Scope meter, what do you think?

[TimWilborne 108]

That's no different than laying out a control panel. It depends on your space constraints. I would mount them on the wall and not actually on the table. Just leave about 4" between the PLCs for ventilation and wiring. Now I never did mount the touchscreen. They were usually laying on the table. I guess you could make something out of plywood to mount the touchscreen on and make some 6 or 8" long mounting brackets for it

[Mickey 71]

These are nice, with wheels. Can be moved around the shop. http://www.hergo.com/XQ/ASP/category.3/xse....i/QX/index.htm

[BobLfoot 302]

We use the Fluke Scope Meter and are very pleased with it for the cost. I also used a Yokogawa DL-716 a few years ago and liked it as well. It is much more scope than is needed in most cases, but did work well in our factory.

[gravitar 3]

[BobLfoot 302]

If you are doing a lot of analog i/o and process control let me also rave about the Fluke 787 ProcessMeter. The built in 4-20 ma generator works off you 24VDC supply of the built in 9V battery. Battery life isn't great on the 9V but it does the tick in a tight spot, jsut keep a pack of 9V's handy.

[Mrclk 0]

Thanks everybody for all the great ideas and information!

[jstolaruk 9]

I've made a few similar to the Hergo's with aluminum extrusion guarding material left over from machines we've built. Problem is, someone else always likes it better and they disappear. Next one I'm going to lock up!