Allen-Bradley Micro850 and Micro830 PLCs

Rockwell Automation has released the Allen-Bradley Micro850 and enhanced Micro830 PLCs. Both micro PLCs feature embedded motion capabilities for up to three axes of motion, allowing them to support a wide range of applications.

The Micro850 micro PLC is equipped with the same form factor, plug-in support, instruction/data size and motion capabilities as the 24-pt and 48-pt Micro830 controllers, but with the added capabilities of ethernet and expansion I/O. The Micro850 controller specifically targets the needs of OEMs and is designed for stand-alone machine applications.

The Micro850 controller has an ethernet port for higher performance connectivity to human-machine interfaces (HMIs). The EtherNet/IP protocol with CIP Symbolic support is used for simplified Allen-Bradley PanelView Component HMI connectivity. Tags created while configuring the HMI screens can easily reference the variable names in the Allen-Bradley Micro800 program.

With support for up to five plug-ins, OEMs can customise the functionality of the controller with additional I/O, special functions and serial ports without increasing the size of the controller. If more I/O or higher-performance analog I/O is required, the Micro850 controller supports up to four 2085 expansion I/O modules, including high-density digital I/O and high-accuracy analog I/O, for a total of 132 digital I/O points.

The Connected Components Workbench software simplifies the installation, configuration, connectivity and maintenance of machine devices, including the series of Micro800 controllers, Allen-Bradley PowerFlex AC drives and PanelView Component graphic terminals. The single software saves OEMs time and associated costs compared with using a different programming tool for each device.