Problem: discontinuation of manufacturing
Our supplier B&R announced 2017, that the PLC used in your suture cutter Fibapic (serial number smaller than 2090), will be discontinued. Suture cutting machines manufactured up to 2017 are equipped with an old PLC (PP420 or PP240), which is not produced any more.
Very old machines (manufactured before year 2012) still have electronic components in it, which are not manufactured any more (like EPOS1 or the B&R System 2003). If one of these components fail, no repair can be done without changing the PLC and upgrading the software. Lead time 8-10 weeks.
old PLC
Solution: upgrading PLC to new model
In order to keep your machine working, we provide an exchange service of your PLC. This work will be executed by our engineer at your plant.
This exchange service consists of:
- exchange the old PLC for a new PLC
- new electrical wiring to the PLC
- upgrade of the software to the new hardware, including software maintainability for the next few years.
- same software functionality as before
- new: logging function of manufacturing in an Excel readable format onto USB memory stick.
- new: all manufacturing-recipies are safed in an XML-file and human readable
- new electrical wiring to the PLC
new PLC
Alternative: Repair of a broken old PLC
The repair of the old PLC (PP440 and PP240) are guaranteed by the orignal equipement manufactuer up to the year 2023. After 2023 no service will be available on old PLCs.
The lead time to repair a broken PLC is by our experience about 8 weeks. If you do not have a spare pannel on stock, your production interruption could last up to 10 weeks.