Rockwell's Allen Bradley has always been viewed in the United States as the benchmark for easy to use software.This has to do with the fact that people have been using the software for so long in the United States.Hi I'm a bit new to Siemens, we re an Allen Bradley plant.until now. In general, Siemens has always been the technology leader doing the most complex applications and consistently developing new and innovative products. Rockwell's development is perceived by some as intuitive and easy to use.Siemens is perceived as extremely capable, but developed more for engineers than for maintenance and support personnel. With Siemens, Distributed Safety is an add on package with a separate charge.Ĩ. Rockwell provides the safety functions standard with the RSLogix software. Rockwell would need to write to the safety output in the safety code, and the standard output somewhere in the standard code.ħ. Rockwell does not.This is not a huge item, but if it makes sense to do something such as turn on an indicator light when a particular E-Stop is pressed (or some other function), Siemens supports putting both of these logic elements on the same network in the Safety logic. Siemens supports writing to standard outputs from the safety program. Siemens provides standard technical support at no charge.Ħ.

Rockwell charges for technical support based on the amount of installed hardware. Rockwell has one safety task and cannot establish two priority groups.ĥ. For those that find that they have a few safety functions that require a very fast response time within a larger system that doesn't need such a fast response, Siemens easily supports this system. This allows the user to implement the safety system at two different time cycles and priorities. Siemens supports up to 2 safety runtime groups. Allen Bradley requires both a Allen Bradley Rack and a Allen Bradley power supply.Ĥ. Siemens does not require a rack or Siemens power supply for the rack, any external 24VDC works. Rockwell requires additional cards (Ethernet/IP, DeviceNet.)ģ. Siemens PLCs have built-in safety/standard communication ports. Rockwell's Allen Bradley least expensive safety PLC, the Compact GuardLogix, is at a higher entry cost.Ģ. Pricing is not always a key consideration, but still a factor. I would really like to see how it would function and flow in a real application.īelow are some Allen Bradley vs Siemens PLCs comparisons:ġ. If I had a project that did not have a PLC manufacturer spec I would use this system. I have much more experience with Allen Bradley systems, but this new software has the PLC program, HMI programming, and motion all tightly integrated in one software package. I recently had attended a Siemens class on the new Simatic Sand came away impressed.

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