PCS's & PLC's - Freelance has the benefits of both

Freelance is a full-fledged distributed control system (DCS) that combines the advantages of both worlds - DCS and PLC It offers the small footprint of a PLC, together with the full functionality of a DCS. The integrated environment simplifies engineering, commissioning, maintenance and fieldbus management. The intuitive operator interface enables easy operation and diagnosis of the entire system.

The freelance environment simplifies commissioning and fieldbus management. The intuitive interface enables easy operation and diagnostics of the entire system. Receieve the benefots of size and price of a normal PLC with the intuitive functions of PCL's.

When using PLCs instead of PCS's engineers need to combine workflows from a plethora of providers. Negative effects can arise from this practice, including will the tools always be available. There are further issues in presentation and operation.

Freelance has many application advantages. Take a sample automation task example: just a few measured analog values from a small number of actuators and sensors. PCs's have the following benefits in this instance:

• Easy setup of configuration and process control including fieldbuses, field devices and visualization
• High reliability thanks to proven function blocks for all types of applications; this means less testing effort
• Convenient implementation of future modifications or improvements

Assume you want to make a minor modification to a small application. How many different, non-integrated tools are affected when you do so in a PLC scenario? How much effort is required for testing? Freelance provides a decisive difference here. Project reports show that it is sensible to replace an older PLC with Freelance Controllers to improve efficiency and productivity.

In a none PLC environment many different none integrated tools are required - this requires more time for testing scenarios.

Freelance DCS has further benefits including:

1: Freelance DCS has serverless architecture - operator work station will receive the data directly from the controller network.

2: All control application backup and HMI graphics backup can be stored in a simple CSV file, making backuping up and restoring easy.

3: Easy to download HMI Graphics pages from an engineering station to operator stations. THism process requires less steps with DCS.

4: DCS supports Crystal reports and OPC server support.

5: Single software tool for performing controller engineering and HMI graphics configuration.

6: Web Interface for controller diagnostics.

The latter would also apply to larger applications and field buses.