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The S7-400 is especially suitable for data-intensive tasks in the
process industry. High processing speeds and deterministic response
times guarantee short machine cycle times on highspeed machines in the
manufacturing industry. The highspeed backplane bus of S7-400 ensures
efficient linking of central I/O modules.
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The S7-400 is used preferably to coordinate overall plants and to
control lower-level communications lines with slave stations; this is
guaranteed by the high communication power and the integral interfaces.
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The power of the S7-400 is scalable thanks to a graded range of
CPUs; the capacity for I/O is almost unlimited.
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The power reserves of the CPUs enable new functions to be integrated
without further hardware investment, e.g. processing of quality data,
user-friendly diagnosis, integration into higher-level MES solutions or
high-speed communication via bus systems.
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The S7-400 can be structured in a modular way without any slot
rules; there is a widely varied range of modules available both for
centralized configurations and distributed structures.
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The configuration of the distribuded I/O of the S7-400 can be
modified during operation. In addition signal modules can be removed and
inserted while live (hot swapping). This makes it very easy to expand
the system or replace modules in the event of a fault.
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The storage of the complete project data including symbols and
comments on the CPU simplifies service and maintenance calls
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Safety technology and standard automation can be integrated into an
S7-400 controller; the plant availability can be increased by the
redundant set-up of the S7-400.
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Many of the S7-400 components are also available in a SIPLUS version
for external environmental conditions, e.g. extended temperature range
(-25?+60°C) and for use where there is aggressive
atmosphere/condensation.