When a line stops, every minute is expensive and nobody wants to wait for a callback on Monday. TS Controls runs a 24/7 line-down number for plants with Siemens and Allen-Bradley controls and KUKA, FANUC, and ABB robots: (864) 526-7779. You can call it any time, day or night. Emergency line-down service is available 24/7, subject to personnel availability.
We're based in Anderson, South Carolina. We support plants across the Upstate and the Southeast auto corridor, and we travel nationwide for on-site work.
What happens when you call
- You reach the line-down number. Tell us the plant, the line or cell, the platform, and what it's doing (or not doing).
- We triage. We ask the questions that narrow it down: what changed, what the HMI and controller report, and what's already been tried. Remote support is available too; ask about it when you call.
- We dispatch if it needs hands on the machine. We aim to be on site within 4 hours locally and 24 hours stateside, subject to personnel availability. Whether and how fast someone can be on-site depends on who is available and how far the plant is, and we'll tell you honestly what we can do before you commit.
- We get it running, then explain what we found. You get a short written summary of the cause, what we changed, and what we recommend so it doesn't happen again.
What to have ready
You don't need all of this to call, but each item saves time:
- Platform and controller. For example S7-300, S7-1500, ControlLogix L7x, PLC-5, SLC 5/05, or the robot brand and controller generation (KRC4, R-30iB, IRC5, etc.)
- What the HMI and controller show. Active alarms, fault codes, the controller's status LEDs, and robot teach pendant messages. Photos help.
- What changed. A program download, a device swap, a power event, a crash, maintenance work, or "nothing we know of"
- Program backups. Where the latest project file is, and whether it matches what's running
- Who's on-site. Your maintenance or controls contact and whether a lockout is in place
- Access. Site security and PPE requirements, and who signs us in
What we handle
- PLC faults. Major faults, lost programs, failed processors or I/O modules, and corrupted or mismatched projects
- Communication failures. EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, PROFIBUS, DeviceNet, DH+, and Remote I/O drops, address conflicts, and failed switches or adapters
- Robot faults. Collision recovery, mastering and calibration, lost positions, path and touchup issues, and I/O handshakes between the robot and the PLC
- Drives and motion. PowerFlex, SINAMICS, Kinetix, and SEW faults, parameter restores, and replacement drive setup
- HMI problems. Lost runtime applications, screens that no longer match the PLC, and failed panels that need a replacement configured
- Legacy hardware. PLC-5, SLC 500, Step 5, and S7-300 systems where the spare on the shelf is the last one
Who calls the line
Maintenance supervisors, controls engineers, and plant engineers at OEM and Tier-1/Tier-2 plants, and automation integrators who need another set of hands on a job that has gone sideways. If you have a PLC, HMI, drive, network, or robot problem that's stopping production, it's the right number. If you're not sure whether it's a controls problem, call anyway. Ruling it out quickly is part of the job.
Upstate South Carolina, the Southeast, and nationwide
Plants in the Upstate (Greenville, Spartanburg, Greer, Anderson, and nearby) are closest to our home base. We also support plants across the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and we take on-site work anywhere in the U.S. We aim to be on site within 4 hours locally and 24 hours stateside, subject to personnel availability.
Rates
Emergency and after-hours work is billed under our Engineering Services Rate Schedule (Rev. 6.0, effective October 8, 2026):
- Short-notice line-down calls. On requests with less than 24 hours' notice, hours worked in the first 24 hours after dispatch are billed at no less than 1.5× straight time.
- Overtime (1.5×) applies to hours over 8 per day, Monday through Friday, and to all hours on Saturday.
- Sundays, national holidays, and TS Controls holidays are billed at the Sunday/Holiday rate (2.0×).
- Minimums and travel. On-site service carries a 4-hour minimum per person per visit. Travel time counts as hours worked, portal to portal.
- Getting started fast. Work may start on an authorized representative's verbal or email approval, with a purchase order to follow within one business day.
Hourly rates by classification are listed on the rate schedule; ask us for a copy. We'll confirm how billing works on the call before anyone travels.
After the line is running
Many emergency calls come from a predictable cause: an obsolete processor with no spare, a program that was never backed up, or a network that grew without a plan. After the fire is out, we can help with the follow-up:
- Verified program backups stored where your team can find them
- A short list of the single points of failure we saw
- A migration plan if the root cause is retired hardware (PLC-5, SLC 500, S5, or S7-300)
Not an emergency?
For planned work, quotes, and outage scheduling, call the office at (864) 526-9202 (Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm Eastern) or send an RFQ with your files.