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Introduction To Industrial automation

School of electrical engineering and computing


Electrical and Computer Engineering
department
February 2017

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What is industrial automation
Industry :In a general sense the term
Industry is defined as follows.
Definition: Systematic Economic Activity that
could be related to Manufacture/Service/
Trade.

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Automation
The word Automation is derived from greek
Auto(self) and Matos (moving).
Automation : is the mechanism for systems that
move by itself.
Definition: Automation is a set of technologies
that results in operation of machines and
systems without significant human
intervention and achieves performance
superior to manual operation
What is Industrial automation ?
Industrial Automation is the use of control
systems and information technologies to
reduce the need for human work in the
production of goods and services in industries.
It is the implementation of automatic means in
an industry
It is a technique that can be used
To reduce costs and
To improve quality.
To save time
Overview of industrial automation
Pneumatic
and Hydraulic
Power
Switchgear, electronics
Contactors
and Relays

Sensors Closed Loop


and Actors Controller
Automation

Electronic
Controls and Programmable
Microcontroller Logic Controller

Motors

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Cont, ..
Main advantages of automation
Replacing human operator in tasks when things
are beyond human capabilities of size, weight,
speed
Improving in economy of enterprise, society or
most of humankind
Main disadvantage of automation
Current technology is unable to automate all
the desired tasks
Unpredictable development cost
High initial cost
May foster unemployment
Types of automation
1. Conventional automation: uses relays as decision
makers.
Basic elements of conventional industrial control system.
i. Logical sensors
ii. Relays
iii. logical actuators
b/s of the relays, conventional industrial control systems :
- Are bulky, - troubleshooting is difficult
- are costly - are not reliable
- are not flexible -
- are complex
Logical sensors
- They are very important in any industrial control
system
- can only detect a state that is either true or false
- Sensor allows a relay or PLC to detect the state of a
process
Physical phenomena detected by logical sensors are:
Inductive proximity
Capacitive proximity
Optical presence
Mechanical contact
Cont,
Typical output from logical sensors:
Sinking/Sourcing switches current on or off
Plain switch- switches voltage on or off
Solid state relays- these switches AC outputs
i.e. triac. And
Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) - switches DC
outputs, use 0v & 5v to indicate logic levels.
Relays as logical decision makers
- Relays help us to switch on and off circuits
without a mechanical switch
- They are used to implement logics
- when current goes through the coil a
- magnetic filed is created
- the iron core becomes magnetic
- The electromagnetic force pools the switch
- A current can go through the switch
normally open (1) for start
normally closed (2) for stop
Logical actuator
Actuators are usually sources of motions
Some examples of actuators are:
- Solenoids
- Motors
- Valves
- Light
- Cylinders
- Heater
- Hydraulics
- Horn
2. Modern industrial automation
- Modern industrial control systems use PLCs as
decision makers.
PLCs are capable of
- Storing instructions
- sequencing
- timing
- counting
- Arithmetic control functions
What is PLC?
- PLC is an electronic device which uses
programmable memory to perform special
functions such as logic sequencing, timing,
counting and computation through digital or
analog input/output modules, which controls
variety of machines and processors.
- most widely used industrial process control
technology

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