Hi..
I am freshman. My company- Holcim Vietnam, is building another plant and going to use PCS7. I went over the contract documentation and have confusion with the relation among Engineering Station, Operator Station, PLC S7-400 and Server.
Please help me with the brief relation among them and the function each of them in PCS7.
Although I visited Siemens website, their explaination is so long, therefore it made me a little confused.

Many thanks.

 

Hi..

Siemens PCS7 is a one stop solution for plant control - it combines a SCADA / PLC system in one package and is Siemens answer to the DCS (distributed Control System) A typical system will comprise of either an Engineering Station (this would be the master with the development node to allow modification to both the SCADA (WinCC) and the PLC (Step7))and several stand alone Operator Stations (WinCC Clients that run the SCADA package only) or a server (again with the engineering capability) with several Operator stations run direct from the server. The PLC's S7-400's are referred to as AS stations or Automation Stations. All the PLC's will be networked together then linked to the Engineering Station. This is a very basic overview. But PCS7 is a good product and is really simple to engineer.

 

Sir

if u already do not know these all things.Itz more better to hire a Proper Man for this Project. Any How

Server:
A Computer, U may assume it as yours main control centre. Having Access to all other peripherirals, PCs, PLCs. Server stores data. Analyse it. Make decision on it. Server controls different users accounts and their restrictions of use of different fields in the Automation process. Server gets Process data from S7-400 PLC.

Engineering Station:
A Client PC in yours Automation system from where you can access all Automation related activities. It fulfills all yours commisoning, modification and other engineering related options.

Operator Station:
A Client PC you will provide to the plant operators to monitor and run the plant. They cannot change any already designed automation sequence. They have very limited options at this PC.An HMI will be installed for this purpose on all operator station. This HMI may directly or through Server PC will communicate with S7-400 PLC to get itz required information.

S7-400 PLC:
It is branded form of Siemens new and advanced dedicated PLC for modern Automation system. It will collect Process Variable data, Control the process. It will also communicate to Server to send itz data.It can be programmed by Engineering Station.

A PLC Programmer
Pakistan

 

To the PLC Programmer from Pakistan,

Sir,

I think he admitted he is a freshman..and presumably with little experience. Would you be so kind as not to ridicule him for asking?

Thank you.

Sanif

 

To Dear SANIF

Plz read my reply on this topic again. I had not ask any thing from him . I just guided him to hire a proper man for this project. after this comment I just try to give him a picture of his new project so that he and some body else can also have at least the basic knowledge about PC7.

Another mail after yours mail also support my knowledge about PC7.

Any how best of Luck for U too.

A PLC Programmer
PAKISTAN

 

Is it really simple to program? From the experience of a major automation project (30 000 IOs, in Canada), if I look at the man-hours used in customizing the system (6 000+), it seems pretty complex. After talking to developers on that same project, I gathered that it demands a lot of visual-basic type of programming, on both ends: PLC and SCADA, which requires some good programming skills. Not a problem per se, but good programmers tend to flock to more lucrative business segments like finance or ERP softwares.

This is why, I think, it is best to have simple tools for customizing, as found in the excellent graphical front end of FactoryLink (i.e. Client Builder). Granted the server side of Flink is not as simple, but the hard part of configuration is only done once, and then maintained. The customizing part is something that always changes.

Just my 2 cents, answers, counter-examples are more than welcome

cheers

Paul

 

I'm not sure if the PCS 7 system he mentioned is built-up for Thi Vai Grinding Terminal in Viet Nam. because my company was carry out the engineering service for that project. it's a intersting project.

 

Paul,

I realise this post is a little dated but there are still two points I like to make.

First of all, customising costs... and needs some programming skills. Fortunately PCS-7 comes with a standard library that is suitable for most factory solutions.

Secondly, enough good programmers don't really like shoving electronic papers and numbers around the offices.