What is the difference between Trident and Triconex?
Difference Between Trident and Triconex Systems
Many engineers in the process industries often question, “What is the difference between Trident and Triconex (Tricon)?” when it comes to important safety systems. Both are part of the Triconex family of safety instrumented systems, although there are some key differences between them.
Tricon (Triconex Classic) is a chassis-based solution made for the most difficult safety tasks. It is SIL 3 certified and even meets the Nuclear 1E standard, so it can be used in nuclear power plants and other businesses that need high integrity. Its triple modular redundancy (TMR) architecture makes sure that it can keep working even when something goes wrong.
On the other hand, Trident is a system that is installed on a baseplate. It also meets SIL 3 standards, however it is not approved for Nuclear 1E. Trident is smaller and is generally the best choice for distributed designs when space, modularity, and flexibility are important. The Tri-GP (General Purpose) controller is a cheap choice for applications that only need SIL 2.
All three systems Tricon, Trident, and Tri-GP—use the same engineering software, TriStation 1131, even though their hardware is different. This tool, which follows the IEC 61131 standard, lets engineers make apps in ladder logic, function block diagram, or structured text. The Emulator Panel is a powerful tool that allows you download, test, and debug apps in a virtual environment without needing real hardware. You can check tag values, force inputs and outputs, and make sure logic is correct before commissioning.
In brief, the option depends on what the application needs, but the programming experience is the same on all platforms.