History Of Industrial Automation

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CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND As defined in Chapter1 Automation is creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of product and service. Industrial automation deals primarily with the automation of manufacturing, quality control and material handling processes. In this Chapter we will go through all the theoretical background of Automation, PLC (Programmable logic controller), basics of PLC programming, Solenoid valve, and Inductive Proximity detector. 3.1 CLASSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION 1. Fixed 2. Programmed 3. Flexible • Fixed automation use the special purpose equipment in order to automate a fixed sequence of processing or assembly and it is difficult to change the design. • Programmed …show more content…

So GM wants a controller that could be programmed and maintain by plant engineers, rugged enough to withstand the factory environment, flexible, and should also have ease of fault location. Thus the first PLC was installed at GM plant in1969 3.6 PLC (PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER) A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a specialized computer used to control machines and process. It uses a programmable memory to store instructions and specific functions that include On/Off control, timing, counting, sequencing, arithmetic, and data handling. PLC manufactured by any company has several common functional units.PLC architecture consists of the following main units: • Power Supply Supplies DC power to other modules that plug into the rack. In large systems of PLC this power supply does not normally supply power to the field devices. In small and micro PLC systems, the power supply is also used to power field …show more content…

The terms “field” and “real world” are used to differentiate actual external devices that exist and which is wired into the system. • Output Module Forms the interface by which output field devices are connected to the controller. PLCs employ an optical isolator which uses light to electrically connect the internal components from the input and output terminals. • Programmer Units The programmer unit provides an interface between PLC and the user during program development, start-up, and troubleshooting. • Memory unit of the PLC serves quite a lot of functions. It is the place where the application program is stored. It is also where the PLC’s executive program is stored. An execution program work as the operating system of the PLC. It is the program that interprets, manages, and executes the user’s application program. Finally, the memory unit is the part of the programmable controller where process data from the output modules and control data for the output modules are temporarily stored as data

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