On the safety front, preventing arc flash is good reason for putting remote I/O in the main cabinet. With remote I/O in the cabinet, you can have different doors inside your panel to create a high-voltage side and a low-voltage side. “You can put remote I/O in that high-voltage side to assist with troubleshooting without having to open those doors,” he says.
Regarding standardization, if all the I/O modules used in the plant are remote I/O, that can help a company standardize on spare parts. “You can trim down the training needed on the same parts; and using the same part in different locations helps with engineering drawing standards,” Little says.
Though remote I/O modules used to cost more than local I/O, Little doesn’t see that as being a differentiator today. “You can get the same performance from a more compact remote I/O module that may be less expensive than main PLC I/O cards,” he says. “I think the upfront costs really come down to the network infrastructure. But with industry trending towards everything being on some kind of network, that infrastructure is probably already in place. So if you already have Ethernet for your PLC and your HMI, adding an Ethernet remote I/O isn't much of an addition.”
Plus, there are benefits related to future expansion. “A main PLC chassis usually only has a maximum number of I/O slots, but you can always add remote I/O,” says Little.
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