If you cannot get hands-on experience working with PLCs, can you take a course and get some kind of certification? Anyone in industry struggling with this same stumbling block? - Jinx
I haven’t had any training on PLCs, and I’ve done limited work with them, but I’ve been extensively involved with automation projects that involved working with PLC integrators.
To directly answer your question, there probably are classes you can take on PLC programming. I’d contact PLC manufacturers, especially Allen Bradley, who should know about where to get training. I’ve never heard of PLC certification, but it might exist, but it may not necessarily be worth anything.
The trouble is that most jobs I see that are primarily PLC jobs seem to look first and foremost at years of experience. Things like troubleshooting experiences, being successful in projects, and other things you’d expect employers to be looking for seem to take a back seat to just years of experience. I’m not sure why that is.
But don’t be discouraged just yet, because of the people I’ve met who are PLC people, there seem to be two categories of how they got into the racket, and the first is learning on the job. That is, at some point he (I’ve yet to meet a female PLC programmer) volunteers to learn PLCs to fix a problem or automate something with PLCs, and their employer lets them because they don’t want either to spend the money on a programmer or to spend the time looking for one. The employer likes the work and has them do more, and they progress that way. (The other way is to be hired out of engineering school by an integrator, but I’m guessing that you aren’t in this position right now.)
I think there’s a glut of PLC programmers now, so getting a job with only training may be quite difficult (especially with the competition having years of experience). If you have the opportunity to work on them at a current job, you’ll just have to find the opportunity. If what’s keeping you from getting your foot in the PLC door is that they don’t want you working on projects because you’re not qualified, do a little self-training with books and manuals (and a real PLC – some are inexpensive, especially used) and step in to help during a pinch. Or if there are people there who work on them full time, you might offer to do some of the grunt work for them, which will still require some training by them. Offer to do more and learn more. Again step in during a pinch.
Now that I’ve already assumed what your stumbling blocks are, what are they? Are you looking to do PLC work in a current job or future? Why PLCs? Tell me about your childhood…
Don’t forget to check with Gould/Modicon for courses on PLCs. In Prudhoe Bay, there are lots of 584s & 984s. Allen - Bradley PLCs are up here, too. I have worked on all these systems and I am not a programmer, but I can read ladder logic and make changes to the PLC programs. Many places use some of the discrete and analog I/Os (input/output cards - “slots” in the Allen - Bradley system), but in a lot of industries, the PLC is just a sophisticated solid-state “logic solving” (kinda like a relay) box.
Do you have some PLC equipment where you work now? If so, jump in with the Automation Dept. and show some interest. Those guys are always willing to off-load some of their work. Especially when it comes to changing out those heavy dang power supplies and mainframe units…
glilly, I’ve seen exactly one female PLC programmer in my eight years in the automotive industry.
Jinx, where are you located? Here in Michigan where industry is our industry, there are lots and lots and lots of places you can take PLC training. For an expensive, non-practical, over your head course you could go right to Allen-Bradley. I think you’d find to much “book thinking” at a community college or tech school, too. But there are all kinds of little places that specialize in training. These are companies that my company (for example) would hire to either come to the plant or send our trades/supervisors/engineers to in order to learn systems. The thing is, they’re hard to find because they’re not in the yellow pages typically (we don’t use the yellow pages at work).
If you tell me you’re in Michigan, I can privately give you some names.
Now there are four ways here to be a PLC programmer – (1) work at the company that makes the PLCs as a support person; (2) work for the big three in the controls group to develop standard logic no one wants; (3) work in an integration shop, usually as a disposable contractor; (4) work for a smaller trainer/integrator/specialist as an instructor and/or field support guy; (5) work for a company as a controls engineer.
There’s the rub, though – most PLC programmers aren’t “just” PLC programmers – they’re controls engineers. This means they also know robots, some electrical/safety codes, how to read electrical prints, how to figure out other machinery’s I/O, pretty much how to make the whole dang system run. Luckily you can get in entry level and pick up most of it as you go along if you know the PLCs – just don’t be disillusioned that you’ll quickly need to know a lot more than just ladder logic.
Many of the “controls engineers” I know are not college graduates, because it doesn’t really matter. There’s no degree in controls engineering. Common paths are being an electrical engineer; being a supervisor; being an electrician; being a field representative from vendors; working at a build/integration shop; and other ways.
Good luck! PLCs are fun.
You can also download free software from Modicon and Allen Bradley to program PLC’s and run them in simulation. You get basically the same version of software as the “real” version, except that it won’t download to a real PLC (actually I think the Allen Bradley version will, but only to their low end PLC, not something like an SLC or a PLC5).
For Modicon, go to www.modicon.com and click on “concept” under “control software” and you’ll see links for trial software and training info on the right side.
For Allen Bradley, go to http://www.software.rockwell.com/navigation/products/ and look for RSLogix. There is also a link for training on the left side of the page.