upgrades

Your Simatic S5, Simatic TI, or SLC 500 control systems has served you well for many years but as time goes by you are finding that it is more and more difficult to locate replacement parts and technical competency for your products. These systems can be converted to the latest technology in any architecture you decide. And the price for the last power supply or CPU you bought does not have to be more than you paid for your kid’s braces.

You are probably asking yourself:

When should I make the transition to new technology?

How do I make that transition and will it hurt?

Where will the transition be made?

What impact will this have on Down Time and how much will it cost?

Who can help me with the transition?

These are all good questions and LT Software Solutions makes the answers clear.

When: The time to make the transition is sooner than later. The search for replacement parts and someone who actually knows what to do with them is only going to get more difficult. Even though Siemens does an excellent job of supporting mature products (Probably better than anyone else in this industry) the bottom line is you are just not going to be able to find those replacement parts and talent forever.

How: Making the transition to Simatic S7 products is actually easier than you might think. Siemens has done their homework as far as it relates to maintaining your I/O investment. The extensive I/O communications capability of Siemens PLCs will allow you to keep most of your I/O investment in place, while taking advantage of the more capable Simatic S7 CPUs. As far as the base software is concerned, in some cases the transition can be easy. Siemens provides conversion software that does a good job of making a first pass of the conversion of your program and will allow many of your existing S5 or TI Ladder Logic programs to be moved to an S7 application. As long as the source application is simple ladder logic the initial portion of the conversion is actually quite painless. Rockwell Automation has done the same for their conversion from SLC to Logix platform. This gives you the opportunity to look to LT Software Solutions as your resource when you find yourself in need of platform conversion. If you find yourself in the situation where you have standardized on a platform and you have machines that have controls not consistent with your standard LT Software Solutions can get you to your standard, Give us a call.

Where: In most cases LTSS can perform the conversion in our facility with very little interruption in your process. Of course we will need access to your system to perform the upgrade, but the impact will be minimal during the upgrade process.
What: LTSS can simulate most systems at our facility prior to startup. This minimizes the effect on your system availability. In most cases some down time will be required, but our special simulation techniques and extensive knowledge of all Siemens PLCs will minimize the down time impact of a system upgrade.

Who: LTSS can help with the finishing details that are required to complete the conversion and with the total conversion of more complex control systems where the methods may not be so straightforward.

LTSS also offers the following upgrade services
Dedicated color graphics processors (CP526, 527, 528, DISIT256, and DIMOS) to Siemens WinCC
Documentation Translation from German to English
Full Upgrade and Support Capabilities for European Developed Systems
Upgrade from AB and GE systems to Siemens S7