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I am in the initial stages of planning a replacement of a Taylor/ABB MOD 300 Multibus-based DCS for process control with gateways to GE Fanuc Series 6 PLCs on a Genius LAN for mostly drive control.
The main issues are limited downtime acceptable for the process and exposure to downtime due to limited spares for the current equipment.
I am considering all options at this stage but mainly focussed on:
1. Migration to current ABB AC460 and GE PACSystems controllers and ABB OperateIT based consoles. Engineering would be via AdvaBuild v3 and Cimplicity Machine Edition Logic Developer.
2. Replacement of the ABB and GE with a classic DCS
3. Replacement with a classic PLC/SCADA
4. Replacement with a so-called "hybrid" system such as Emerson DeltaV
Option 1 is the no-brainer in terms of minimising engineering risk but not necessarily better in the long term for us in terms of future expansion and cost-effective integration of our systems.
Other options will require an approach to be formulated that allows for incremental upgrade and operation of two operator interfaces side-by-side.
What I am interested is feedback from others who have had experience in replacing these specific systems and what the main stumbling blocks can be.
Also interested generally in anyone's ideas of what they think may be a good replacement.
(Please no comments arguing about terminology - just good engineering advise )
The main issues are limited downtime acceptable for the process and exposure to downtime due to limited spares for the current equipment.
I am considering all options at this stage but mainly focussed on:
1. Migration to current ABB AC460 and GE PACSystems controllers and ABB OperateIT based consoles. Engineering would be via AdvaBuild v3 and Cimplicity Machine Edition Logic Developer.
2. Replacement of the ABB and GE with a classic DCS
3. Replacement with a classic PLC/SCADA
4. Replacement with a so-called "hybrid" system such as Emerson DeltaV
Option 1 is the no-brainer in terms of minimising engineering risk but not necessarily better in the long term for us in terms of future expansion and cost-effective integration of our systems.
Other options will require an approach to be formulated that allows for incremental upgrade and operation of two operator interfaces side-by-side.
What I am interested is feedback from others who have had experience in replacing these specific systems and what the main stumbling blocks can be.
Also interested generally in anyone's ideas of what they think may be a good replacement.
(Please no comments arguing about terminology - just good engineering advise )