An Overview on Industrial Automation - Requirement, Structure, Types & Techniques

  Industrial Automation 

To solve automation and control problems, industries use ever-changing technologies in control systems for efficient production or manufacturing processes. These require high-quality and reliable control systems. New trends in industrial automation deal with the latest control equipment and communication protocols to control field equipment such as control valves and other end control elements. Some smart devices or devices used in the automation industry have the ability to control processes and have communication capabilities without interfacing with other field control devices such as PLC. 

What is Industrial Automation?

Industrial automation is the use of various control devices such as PC / PLC / DCS to control and control the various activities of the industry without significant human intervention and to provide automatic control performance. In industries, control strategies use implemented technology to get the desired performance or product, industries need a lot of automation systems.

Automated process in industries

Industrial automation includes cascade controls, advanced control hardware devices PLC, sensors and other tools for sensing control variables, signal conditioning devices for connecting signals to control devices, drives and other important end control devices, independent computing systems, communications systems, etc. Interface) systems.

An automated industry is needed

1. To reduce periodic or manual inspection: Periodic inspection of the process variable is required to perform industrial operations on some complex applications. Automation devices reduce periodic or manual operations and set up automatic working conditions.

2. To increase productivity

Automating manufacturing and other production processes increases the production rate by producing a larger amount of output for given labor input. 

3.  Reduce production costs

Using automatic machines and equipment, human intervention to control processes suddenly drops. It reduces investment over labor cost and production cost.

4· To improve product quality

Continuing to do the same thing in terms of quality specifications with human effort may not be perfect in all cases. With automation equipment, reliable and uniform product quality can be achieved by using real-time hardware control devices. 

5.  To increase flexibility: The process is carried out using a variety of automation devices, especially in manufacturing processes without obtaining any complex environment.

6. Improves operator friendliness and security

With industrial automation, the management complexity of equipment or processes is reduced. It changes the position of the operator from an operator to a supervisory role. 

7. Structure of industrial automation  

The structure of industrial automation describes different levels of activity. These include sensor level, automation control level (unit, cell, process controls), monitoring level, and enterprise level. Indicates the structure of the pyramid, the information is comprehensive when you go up the tip and it melts when you go down. This means that below we get detailed information for a specific variable. Industrial automation does not mean that all levels, such as the company level, are automated.

Structure of industrial automation 

The structure of industrial automation describes different levels of activity. These include sensor level, automation control level (unit, cell, process controls), monitoring level, and enterprise level. Indicates the structure of the pyramid, the information is comprehensive when you go up the tip and it melts when you go down. This means that below we get detailed information for a specific variable. Industrial automation does not mean that all levels, such as the company level, are automated.

The sensor level is also known as the process layer. It uses sensors and actuators to obtain the values ​​of process variables continuously or periodically. These act as the eyes and hands of industrial processes. Some of these instruments include pneumatic devices, smart instruments, and so on.

The automation control level or control layer uses industrial control devices such as PC / PLCs / DCS. This level uses various embedded processors, and PID algorithms to control the process.  

Automation layers: 

The monitoring level or SCADA layer receives most of the channel information and stores the data in the system database. It receives data from various control devices and displays them in HMI (Human Machine Interface). It gives an alarm to indicate the levels of the process and to control the variables. It uses specialized software to obtain data and communication protocols to interact with field devices.

Performs enterprise-level scheduling, orders, sales, product planning, etc.

·         Sensors and actuators

A sensor senses various process variables and converts them into electrical or optical signals. These sensors include temperature, pressure, velocity, flow, and so on.

Actuators convert electrical signals into mechanical means to gain control over processes. These include relays, magnets, servomotors, and so on.

Some sensors and actuators can communicate with industrial field communication buses that fall within the scope of smart devices.

·         Industrial computers

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are also known as industrial computers, which can be programmed to perform certain control functions. It includes a CPU or processor, and I/O modules (both analog and digital) to connect different input/output devices and relay modules. These can be modular, which are fixed typewriter integrated types to extend the modules based on the available inputs.

In addition to PLCs, traditional PCs are used to control the process either online or by changing programs. PLC comes with specialized software to program the control strategy.

·         HMI (Human Machine Interface)

HMI provides the ability to display information on computer screens and other displays, log the results into a database, and give an alarm signal. It uses SCADA (Monitoring Control and Data Acquisition) and other video-based technologies.

·         Communication system

Many sensors, actuators, PC control and other control devices in industries are geographically distributed and interact with each other via multiple data buses. Three types of buses are used in industrial automation, namely factory bus, process bus, and field bus.

The field bus interacts with field instruments and control devices, while the process bus connects monitoring level computers to control devices such as PLC. The factory bus connects the top level of the company to the level of supervision. Different protocols are used for communications such as RS-485,  Can Control Modbus, etc.

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