I can not agree with these comments. It seems like most people do not know the complete product offering from GE Fanuc. For example, VersaMax is an excelent product line, totally designed based on Six Sigma procedures. Its price/performance ratio is outstanding.

The Genius LAN, though propietary and "old" in design, remains a solid rock implementation for industrial I/O communications that are extremely easy to install and noise immune. All PLC's talk this protocol.

Besides there is also Ethernet on all controllers and on some I/O. They have Ethernet Global Data, etc , etc, etc.

Not to mention how solid GE is financially, compared to AB and others.

I hope these comments help to open minds and to investigate more before shooting.

Thanks,
Alvaro Rodríguez

 

3 to 1? What about the stuff made by other power generation manufacturers such as ABB? Are they using GE also?

Bob Peterson

 

Yes Bob 3 to 1.

I'm talking about custom designed/built switchgear and control systems. We do not use ABB or even GE switchgear for that matter.

The consulting engineers usually approve and sometimes even spec. the PLC manf., along with other component manf..........protective relaying, breakers, metering etc.

I've designed/commissioned about 15 custom designed distributed power generation systems over the past 5 years and I can only recall utilizing AB's on 3 projects.

Regards,
Mark Liszewski

 

Hi Alvero

> From: Alvaro Rodriguez
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: BUSN: What is wrong with GE Fanuc
>
> I can not agree with these comments. It seems like most people do not
> know the complete product offering from GE Fanuc. For example, VersaMax
> is an excelent product line, totally designed based on Six Sigma
> procedures. Its price/performance ratio is outstanding.
>
> The Genius LAN, though propietary and "old" in design, remains a solid
> rock implementation for industrial I/O communications that are extremely
> easy to install and noise immune. All PLC's talk this protocol.

You forgot expensive.

> Besides there is also Ethernet on all controllers and on some I/O. They
> have Ethernet Global Data, etc , etc, etc.

And they stonewalled for months when I asked for enough info to write a Linux client. Ethernet without standard or at least published protocols has no particular advantage. Not impressed.

> Not to mention how solid GE is financially, compared to AB and others.
>
> I hope these comments help to open minds and to investigate more before
> shooting.

I have an adequate supply of ammunition from attempting to integrate their stuff.

Regards

cww

 

Distributors are hard to find. We finally found one who seems to understand GE fanuc PLC products and has large inventory. CIMTEC Automation.

 

I have had the opportunity to work with GE S6+, Genius I/O, 90-30, 90-70 and Versamax PLCs LogicMaster 6, 90 and Cimplicity ME/Logic developer. I have also worked with SLC500, FlexLogix, ControlLogix PLCs and RSLogix5000. I would say that AB is more advanced in features and capabilites but more often than not they issue products before they are ready. I have struggled with getting AB stuff working WAY more that GE Fanuc hardware and software. GE stuff is typically easier to use, far more robust and half the price.

AB tech support is TERRIBLE!!! They are arrogant and mostly useless. GEFanuc is miles ahead in providing useful tech support.

To summarize, if it's got to work and be the best bang for the buck then buy GE... if you can play because the client has to have AB then spend the big bucks, spend the time getting it working and pray you don't have problems.

 

GE Fanuc is a very small part of GE. However since they have money they buy up companies (Intellution, Mountain Systems etc.) and then get rid of all the knowledgable employees. Today very few Intellution employees exist. I believe that GE Fanuc will continue to be behind the times and will ruin the good software companies and products (iFIX, iHistorian etc.), by trying to run them like a Finance company (GE Capital).

 

Hi,

I have a TON of 90-70 GE Fanuc blocks. I think that they are an excellent PLC. If you have trouble getting them please drop me a line at [email protected].

Thanks,

Andre

 

You had not given any comment on controllogix (AB).

 

I have programmed with both GE VersaPro and AB RSLogix5. I find the programming with GE to be easier, less cumbersome and more powerful. Following the AB menu seems to be never ending and one has to be careful when Append and Insert is used. The dot instruction way of programming in AB is an easier way of programming but one has to be very familiar with the instructions. The menu for GE is straight forward and easier to find an instruction. The power of GE to troubleshoot or modify a program is more powerful than AB. Forcing or replacing an instruction in AB is very cumbersome while forcing or replacing an instruction in GE is easier and almost all instructions in GE can be forced whether one is working with a bit or number. My preference is GE in the dos world with LM/90 or LM30 or in the Windows world with VersaPro.

I have started up many GE systems. The systems were usually configured with a rack with the CPU and very few I/O and Genius communication modules. The communication modules would be wired to remote I/O in the Genius category. The startup does not require the setting of dip switches. The only dip switches are in on the rack with the CPU or any other remote rack in the system. All I/O module settings are done with the programming software and/or hand held monitor.

 

Actually nothing is wrong!

Yes,I could sleep peacefully after giving up GE 90-30 PLC after 2 years of experiance in the very early stages of GE PLC that is 1996 to 1998 maybe things have changed NOW!

Anyway, best luck to GE, I am on Contrologix/Flexlogix/compactlogix platform now.
Didn't feel the need to look back.

 

Hello all of you,

I would like if any of you has any new comments on this subject. Or GEFANUC has been definitely forgotten?

What happened to iFix after being swallowed by GE ?

Does any of you have impressions about Proficy Process System - an hybrid system now been marketed?

Thanks
pandross

 

I still see a fair amount of GE Fanuc in the process (petro-chemical) industry down here in Texas. I still almost never see GE Fanuc in packaging or material handling apps.

The two biggies are Rockwell and Siemens. Why? I have no idea. Just the way the market turned out, I guess.

-James Ingraham
Sage Automation, Inc.

 

GE Fanuc is still very active in the control market.

iFIX is still available and still being developed (we recently introduced iFIX 5.0 and iFIX Webspace). iFIX is the world number 1 HMI/SCADA in Life Sciences and widely used in other industries such as power and process.

From a controller point of view it's true that we don't have the same market share as some of our competition, but it varies by industry. We're big in power, oil & gas and some OEM markets.

PACSystems are state of the art and can beat anything Rockwell or Siemens have and at a lower price. We're also backed by GE which is still profitable even in the current economic climate.

 

The tools after LogicMaster have sucked. And that's from a GE fan.

Regards
cww

 

Distributors are hard to find. We finally found one who seems to understand GE fanuc PLC products and has large inventory. CIMTEC Automation. Also PDFsupply is a great source for GE Fanuc PLC's. They also have a lot of tech documents for reference.

 

I think the problem with GE Fanuc was that the geniuses that run GE thought that PLCs and CNCs were basically the same thing and that it made sense to cram them into the same business unit.

Now that they have split them up, perhaps the PLC/HMI side can grow and prosper.

Even AB and Siemens were able to figure that out.

 

Some reasons they aren't at the top of my list are that they are expensive and don't seem as versatile and flexible as some and you don't see many leading edge products. The greatest reason is that I just don't like their recent programming tools which they seem to change quite frequently. But if someone specs GEF, It wouldn't be a big deal to work with it and I have. One company I've applied to asked, and I'd work in a GEF shop and be happy. They just don't seem to be pushing as hard as some others. But, I am much more agnostic than some of our gentle readers.

Regards
cww

 

I had some GE guys in my place of employment about 7 years ago or so. They had the so called PAC thing they were pushing but they wanted outrageous prices for it and didn't have a lot of information. The PAC didn't seem that much different than a PLC at the time. They coaxed me to their traditional PLC line which seemed very outdated and communicated to servos through an analog torque interface. This seemed odd because most PLC vendors these days use a high speed serial motion control network (I've since given up on PLC motion control myself since it is very limiting in the programming and control of complicated motions). The sales people were really nice and everything but the product seemed very dated at the time.

KEJR

 

One other thing I think was hurting GEF was that they did not really have a complete line of GP automation stuff. They still don't have much in the way of VFDs, servo motors, and motion control for GP automation. People more and more want to buy stuff at one place, so the fingerpointing is reduced and you can get a better price overall.

I think the HMIs and PLCs are OK. Nothing special, but on par with AB and Siemens these days. I think they have hurt themselves by continuously shuffling the programming packages, and even today they are harder to use than either AB or Siemens, IMO.