I am new to plc programming - but i have used the crouzet millenium II and III in a very nasty environment - i programmed one to move die sections in and out on a metal pan forming die. This controller sits inside a 1500 lb form die and the whole thing is in a 300 ton punch press - no special enclosure and no special protection - it has run for 2 yrs now with no problems. This is an extremely oily and dusty environment - software is 20 dollars- us they are readily available- programming cable is about 80 dollars and works with XP and Vista (run in admin mode when using Vista)