Upgrading of existing plants
Retrofit: Modernization of control systems
Even today, 17 years after discontinuance of the Siemens Simatic S5 PLC controls, still many plants run this type of PLC in important control plants. Especially with emergency power supply many even older PLC controls are still in operation. And this regard security relevant controls!
Spare parts supply is getting more and more complicated.
That's why there is an urgent need for action!
We from HPS have a recently retrofitted a emergency power plant from Siemens S5 control to Siemens S7. In doing so, we replaced the former LED operator panel by a modern operation panel with plain text display.
Prior to retrofit
Before modification the actual situation was reviewed by our partner Heinkel Umwelttechnik + Energieanlagen GmbH from Berlin at the end customer.
The fastest and best modification possibilities were put together in cooperation.
The end customer then was provided with an offer for a solution involving a S7-300 PLC control by Siemens, as because the customers also runs other plants with this kind of control.
Retrofit
Before dismantling the wiring around the PLC, all wires were labeled. Afterwards, the old S5 parts were ready to be removed. Subsequent the LED operator panel and the additional panels were removed.
Now the new PLC control was ready to be build in. As the modern parts have a higher density of integration, the new control needs less space. Too short wires are prolonged by terminals.
The new operation panel was already built into a prepared aluminium blind prior to installation, that only needed to be connected to the door by the existing mounting points.
Now only the PLC control had to be connected to the operation panel by a bus cable.
The prepared control program was transfered into the CPU of the PLC and the control was restarted successfully after this process.
Conclusion
Due to preparatory work at HPS, the retrofitting and thus downtime at the customer were reduced to a minimum, so that the emergency power plant was available again within 24 hours.
If you have any questions or are interested in our product solutions, our technical sales team will be happy to assist you.