We installed a new Area in our Plant here (Life Sciences) about 5 years ago and went with Rockwell PlantPAX. Locally, we wanted Emerson ... but got overruled by a couple of "Corporate Mercenaries" from the Company that had just bought the Site. This new System is only three "Main" Controllers, FactoryTalk Batch for the Recipes, some additional Vendor Skid PLCs tied into it, plus some Local Field Panels. It "works", but we don't really like the implementation ... and probably don't want it "spreading" to our 50+ Controller proprietary DCS, which we're *finally* looking to replace (after 25+ years!).
But we don't really know much about Emerson Delta-V, either ... no in-house Systems to "play" with ... to see if it's better than Rockwell.
Here's the thing with our proprietary DCS: the Software is highly Modular ... and we have a proprietary Recipe Application written in Windows that works beautifully for our Site (and it highly intuitive)! The software is graphical ("Wires" connecting Function Blocks), and actually runs under DOS! We have dual-boot Windows XP Machines for this. The HMI is also proprietary (UK-built, they've been gone for years), but we have a Windows emulator that works fine. The Software is about 150 distinct Modules for things like Pressure Control, Temperature Control, Fluid Transfers, Solids Transfers, Motor Control, Centrifuge Control, various Utilities Control, etc. ... but a Module can appear in multiple Controllers ... worst case ... 35 out of 50 Controllers!
We want a software system that allows us to make a change to one of these Modules and have it "ripple-through" all the Instances ... so we only make the change in ONE PLACE!
Rockwell can't seem to do that (right now). Maybe they're working on this ... but they've had plenty of time to do it ... and it's just shocking that their Platform is not capable of something so obviously necessary!
Believe it or not, our Proprietary DCS Software CAN do Instanced Logic ... but only within a single Controller! It was never upgraded to do it across multiple Controllers ... which means changes have to be manually copied from Controller to Controller (a painstaking process ... and there is very limited Importing capability, making it difficult to do ... but we've been doing it ... very reliably, too, over the years!).
Can Emerson "instance" Logic changes ... I've heard it can ... but how easily?
What we're asking for in the the new System is ... some Automation for the Automation ... to make the changes and updates a "snap" ... so that we can spend time improving our System ... instead of wasting time fighting with it ...
Colt,
You may already know this but I'm including it for context for others.
PlantPAx is has an object library. You can modify and deploy that library across multiple applications.
This slide below is from 2015 so it's not showing all the latest features but the object can contain:
For Logix... an example of a Process control strategy is the PPID... shown in the library on the left and the function block sheet is on the right. You could modify this control strategy and publish it back to the library as a new version for the PPID control strategy.
Once the library object is updated, you'll want to deploy those changes. In this example, we only changed the Logix so it is showing those deployment options. You can generate ACD files for all the controllers, however, this would require a scheduled time for the download. To deploy to a running system without stopping the controller, you can generate programs and/or routines L5X (that are impacted by the object changes) and import them to the running controller.
When importing the Logic to a running controller, the existing logic is still running and the new logic is imported along side the existing logic so that you can see both in the controller and toggle between both. You can test/untest/assemble the edits in the controller. Eventually you will assemble and finalize the edits where the new logic replaces the old and the old logic is removed. For the brave, you can skip directly to finalize edits which immediately overwrites the original logic.
Besides the Process Objects library, there are lot of other libraries available to download for from from the download center.. search for ACM or "Library". You can also build your own content and implement it with this same workflow.
In reply to pmhamilton:
Michael Moody : Funny you mention "make sure you tell the Integrator about [our] existing Modules ... so they don't go down the path of creating every Module from scratch" ... well ... that's kind of what happened with the new Area System (PlantPAx). ACM wasn't used ...and even though our Proprietary System Documentation is very good ... we have a "Description Document" for every Module in our System ... showing all the "common" Objects, Displays, etc ... the Rockwell Integrators just Coded it up in what I'd call "straight-line" Logic (except that those GEMS Modules were used ... which I don't like due to all the "bloatware" they create ... and now Rockwell is gonna lock them down in Firmware, from what I'm hearing ... so they can control that Code with their Licensing Game, etc.). Hate all that! Secretly, what I'd really like to do is build my own System ... have it run on a "highly-available" Server, running Linux ... where every Module is its own Process ... and where I would be able to "Warm Start" Modules any time I want (whenever Operations wasn't using them) ... and right off an updated HDD image ... into Memory. I would have just ONE image for each Module this way, and Controllers could even be dynamically built to run in Memory ... so if we needed to Add a Module here, or Remove a Module there ... we could do this quickly and easily. We already have an MTL PAC8000 I/O System gathering all the I/O for us in the Field ... it's all hard-wired ... and there are no plans to implement something like ProfiBus due to cost ... so ... all the I/O data is already being MUXed onto an Ethernet Cable into our 50+ DCS Controllers (which are currently VME-chassis Motorola 68040-based running Microware's OS-9) ... so ... all we need to replace is the background "number-crunching" Logic. The Front-End is Proprietary, too ... a UK-based HMI, defunct for 20 years now ... but we also implemented a single Area with Wonderware Archestra back in 2008 ... so ... that could be expanded to the other (4) Areas by simply building the missing Module Displays that aren't already included in this one Area. pmhamilton : I wasn't aware of the ACM option ... and as I just mentioned in my reply to Michael Moody above ... the Integrators didn't use it (unfortunately) ... but that makes me feel a lot better about maybe using Rockwell as the Platform to replace our Proprietary DCS. It certainly seems to "close the gap" quite a bit! Now ... the question becomes ... which Platform provides the better "Automation within the Automation" for the Programmer/Developer/Automation-Person to quickly, and painlessly, make System updates? Either System will "work" ... so ... to me .. the difference lies in "which System makes the Developer's life easier"?