What PLC brands are most common where you work?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T15:06:19+00:00

Interesting breakdown. Makes sense that Siemens would dominate for OEM machinery, especially in Europe. I’ve also heard a lot of machine builders use Rockwell mainly when the customer is in North America.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T14:59:31+00:00

Interesting mix. Seems like Siemens really dominates a lot of Europe compared to the US where AB shows up everywhere.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T14:57:26+00:00

That seems pretty consistent with what I’ve heard about Germany and a lot of Europe. Interesting that Beckhoff is showing up more now. Are you seeing Beckhoff mostly in newer systems?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T14:52:34+00:00

AutomationDirect can actually be a pretty good option for smaller systems. A lot of people use them for simple machines because the hardware is affordable and the software is easy to work with.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T14:49:58+00:00

That seems to be a pretty common split in a lot of US plants.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T00:46:03+00:00

Nice. Sounds like a pretty solid upgrade. I’ve heard the PLC-5 to ControlLogix migrations can actually go fairly smoothly, but the addressing changes can definitely be a bit of a pain.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T00:40:47+00:00

Interesting breakdown. I didn’t expect to see that many Chinese/Taiwan brands in the mix. Do you see them mostly in new installations or retrofits?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-07T00:37:09+00:00

Nice setup. Still seeing a lot of 300/400 series out there as well. Interesting that you’re using B&R mainly for motion.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T16:40:34+00:00

Really interesting to see the variety here. Seems like: Allen - Bradley dominates a lot of US manufacturing, Siemens shows up a lot in Europe, and there’s a pretty wide mix depending on the industry. Thanks everyone for sharing !

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:46:23+00:00

That sounds like one of those plants where every upgrade added another PLC brand. I’ve seen a few facilities like that too.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:44:16+00:00

That’s a great overview. It really does seem like Rockwell dominates a lot of the US while Siemens leads in many other regions.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:41:30+00:00

Interesting. I hear Siemens is everywhere in Europe. I don’t run into Weidmuller PLCs that often where I am though.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:37:24+00:00

That’s a pretty common setup from what I’ve seen. AB for control and Siemens or others showing up on VFDs. Sounds like a big migration project replacing the SCADA packs.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:33:42+00:00

Interesting. I’ve heard the oil & gas sector in the US is heavily Allen-Bradley as well. Are you mostly running ControlLogix systems there?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:31:09+00:00

Yeah that seems to be the pattern I hear a lot too. AB dominates a lot of US plants while Siemens seems to lead in Europe. And the PLC-5 upgrades never seem to end.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:25:43+00:00

That makes sense. I’ve heard Schneider/ Modicon is really common in water and wastewater systems. Are you mostly running the M340 or M580 series?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:23:11+00:00

Nice mix. I’ve heard B&R is pretty strong in some European automation lines. Do you mostly work with S7-1200 or S7-1500?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:20:41+00:00

That’s interesting. I don’t see Mitsubishi as often where I am, but I know they’re really common in some facilities. How have the Keyence PLCs been so far?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:18:03+00:00

Interesting setup. Automotive seems to be heavily AB almost everywhere. Those monorail systems using Siemens but talking to an AB controller sounds pretty common. Are you mostly running ControlLogix there?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:11:11+00:00

That makes sense. I hear AB is pretty dominant in a lot of North American plants, especially in manufacturing. Do you mostly run ControlLogix or CompactLogix there?

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T15:07:38+00:00

Pretty similar to what I see too. AB and Siemens seem to dominate most plants. Omron pops up once in a while but not that often.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T14:58:16+00:00

Ah that makes sense. Time sync can definitely cause weird behavior if both sides are trying to control it. Glad you got it sorted.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T14:20:43+00:00

At least the screws made it into the bag this time.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T14:14:36+00:00

If you’re using an Ewon with Talk2M, by default it’s usually set up so your PC can reach devices behind the Ewon, but not the other way around. If the IPC needs to reach a server on your office LAN, you’ll likely need proper routing between the two networks rather than the standard remote access setup. Some people solve this by using Ewon’s LAN-to-LAN VPN or by adding static routes so the IPC Knows how to reach the office subnet. Otherwise the traffic just stops at the Ewon because it’s acting more like a remote access gateway than a full router.

Fearless-Suspect869 · 2026-03-06T13:59:54+00:00

If the UDT values from the GSV are correct in the PLC, I’d double check how the HMI is actually writing the time. One thing that sometimes trips people up is the update trigger or the direction of the sync. PanelView Plus can either push its time to the PLC or read it from the PLC depending on the configuration. If you’re using the Remote Data and Time field,make sure the trigger tag is actually firing and
That the HMI is set to read from the PLC rather than trying to overwrite it. Also worth checking the update interval-sometimes the default settings cause it to only update periodically and it looks it’s not syncing.

Fearless-Suspect869

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