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Rockwell FactoryTalk alarm text messages for Canadian plant crews

A FactoryTalk alarm text message reaches the maintenance tech on call as soon as the alarm email goes to your Welco address. If a packaging line stops on the night shift, the text names the line, the fault and the time. Approve the From address in Welco, and your FactoryTalk project stays as it is.

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  • FactoryTalk project left as is
  • Nothing to install on the HMI
  • No per-user fees

Setup guide for

  • FactoryTalk

Published:

A Rockwell FactoryTalk HMI screen with a Bottling process mimic and an alarm summary: the row Line4_Filler_Jam, LINE 4 FILLER BOTTLE JAM, appears InAlarm, Unack with priority 750 above two acknowledged alarms. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Line 4] Filler bottle JAM, unacked at 1:26 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long Rockwell FactoryTalk alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: [Line 4] Filler bottle JAM, unacked at 1:26 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What FactoryTalk texts give the tech on call

  • The line, the machine and the fault

    The text says Line 4 filler bottle jam. The area path, the severity number and the server name stay in the email.

  • The right trade gets called

    Words in the alarm choose the phone. Drive faults go to the electrician, and air or hydraulic alarms go to the millwright.

  • The controls network stays closed

    Welco never connects to FactoryTalk, a PLC or the plant network. It reads the alarm email once your mail server has sent it.

  • A line stop sends a few texts, not fifty

    When every station downstream alarms at once, flood limits keep the phone readable. The HMI still holds the full list.

How FactoryTalk alarms get to email

If a system can send an email, it can feed Welco's SCADA alarm texting. This page walks through Rockwell FactoryTalk.

FactoryTalk is Rockwell's family of plant software, including the HMI screens manufacturing crews run lines from. Its alarms usually start in a PLC, the controller that runs a machine or a line. Plants push them to email with a script, a reporting tool, an alarm notifier or a small service an integrator wrote.

  • Is there a FactoryTalk alarm email today? If not, your controls integrator can add one.
  • A Welco account with your plant verified. Start free with your business number ready.
  • The techs and supervisors who cover nights, each joined from a Welco invite on their own cellphone with a YES reply.

Send a FactoryTalk alarm text message in 5 steps

Find the email or SMTP notification settings in FactoryTalk, or in whatever tool your plant uses to email alarms. A controls tech usually wraps this up in half an hour.

  1. Trace an alarm email to its sender

    Open a recent alarm email. The From address and the layout show which script or tool sent it.

  2. Approve that address in Welco

    Add the From address to the senders allowed to text your techs. Welco turns away mail from any address you haven't approved.

  3. Add your Welco address as a recipient

    In that tool's email settings, add your Welco address. Keep the maintenance mailbox on the list so the full alarm stays on record.

  4. Choose which alarms should text

    Send only high-severity alarms, or only the lines that run overnight. If the tool can't filter, set a Welco alarm rule on the area or severity.

  5. Trigger a test alarm

    Force a safe test alarm on an idle line and watch the phone. Welco's test mode shows the result without sending a text.

Get line alarms to the on-call tech's phone

Add your Welco address to the FactoryTalk alarm email and get your plant verified.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my FactoryTalk alarmsBook a demo

Sample case packer fault, email and text

The alarm email lists the area path, the severity number and the server. The tech needs the machine, the fault and the time.

Alert email from ft-alarms@plant.example.ca, subject “Alarm In: Line1_CasePacker_Fault”. Welco trims it to one text of 95 characters: “Welco: [Line 1] Case packer guard door OPEN, e-stop active at 5:08 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [Line 1] Case packer guard door OPEN, e-stop active at 5:08 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters232951 credit

Animation: the alert email "Alarm In: Line1_CasePacker_Fault" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [Line 1] Case packer guard door OPEN, e-stop active at 5:08 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

These are samples, not FactoryTalk's exact layout. A one-text alert rule fits whatever your email says.

Tips for plant floor alarm texts

A text that wakes a tech at 3 a.m. should mean a line is down or about to go down.

  • Text by shift

    On-call routing sends night-shift alarms to the on-call tech and daytime alarms to the area supervisor.

  • Shutdowns over a long weekend

    With the plant down for a statutory holiday, utilities still count, especially in winter. Keep texts on for compressors, boilers and heat trace, and pause line alarms with a time-based rule.

  • One fault, not fifty texts

    A line stop is one of the textbook causes of alarm floods. Alarm flood control caps how many texts each phone gets during the burst.

  • Copy the supervisor on e-stops

    Send e-stop and safety circuit alarms to the on-call tech and the shift supervisor together. Each phone gets a single copy.

When a FactoryTalk text doesn't arrive

Work outward from the plant to the phone.

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Frequently asked questions

Can a PLC fault send a text without going through the HMI?

Only if something turns the fault into an email. Some plants run a gateway or a small service that watches PLC tags and emails on a fault. If you have one, point it at Welco. PLC alarm texts covers the usual ways plants get controller alarms to email.

Does Welco need access to our controls network?

No. Welco never connects to FactoryTalk, your PLCs or your plant network. It only receives the alarm email after your mail server sends it. Plant IT keeps the controls network closed, and nothing goes on the HMI or server.

Can maintenance reply to say they're on their way?

Yes. A reply to a Welco text arrives as an email at the address that sent the alarm. If that's a no-reply mailbox, forward it to the maintenance inbox. The reply is a note for people, not an acknowledgment in FactoryTalk.

Do techs need a FactoryTalk app on their cellphone?

No. The alarm lands as an ordinary text in the phone's messages app, so any mobile that takes texts works. Techs need no plant login or remote access to read it. They still reset the fault at the HMI.

Which FactoryTalk alarms deserve a text overnight?

Start with alarms that stop a line or risk damage: drive faults, e-stops, low air pressure, high motor temperature, and freezer or boiler trips. Leave quality warnings and operator prompts on the HMI. After a week, review the Welco feed and drop any alarm nobody acted on.

We already pair WIN-911 with FactoryTalk. Do we drop it?

Only if you want to. WIN-911 can keep its voice callouts and acknowledgments and send its alarm email to Welco for the texts. The WIN-911 alarm email page shows that setup.

What do FactoryTalk alarm texts cost?

Welco charges no per-user fees, so every tech on the call list can join. There's no hardware and no setup fee either. You pay for the message credits your alarms use on each phone, and trimming keeps most alarms to one credit. Plans are in US dollars on the pricing page.

Send the next line-down alarm to the tech on call

Add your Welco address to the FactoryTalk alarm email and test it on an idle line this week.

Text me my FactoryTalk alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing