What is Industrial Automation & How it Evolved
What is industrial Automation
Industrial Automation is often a technique in which we make pay human control to machines. In industrial automation machines are developed to accomplish the tasks which human beings accustomed to achieve. Why it is done? Because of its advantages:
Through Industrial automation we will do mass production with less manpower
Quality from the strategy is increased
Safety of person & products are increased
More accurate process control
Since human intervention is less so reliability from the system is higher
Systems operate is low power, more electronic control so equipment life's higher
Changes in process logic becomes easier since logics are changed mostly through software
Principal Industrial Automation MNCs
L & T • ALSTOM
Schneider • FESTO
Siemens • Fuji Electric
Allen Bradley • Toshiba
Messung • TATA Honeywell
Modicon • Omron
Mitsubishi • Fanuc
Asia Automation • Delta
How industrial automation control system Evolved?
Initially automation was achieved through manual control, operators accustomed to control the task each and every step. Human intervention was there at every step. Drawbacks were substandard quality output, errors associated with human involvement affected compromised safety, wastage of raw material, and accuracy of human action.
Then came Pneumatic Control: Industrial automation on this era was achieved through invention of pneumatic controllers at the begining of 1920s. Automation was achieved by controlling air to pneumatic valves, which often were actually switched on/off by relays and switches. They were very bulky and changing from the logic was very complex procedure since lots of rework was necessary to accomplish alteration of logic. So time taken to complete task changes was very high
Hard wired logic control: contactors, relays (for switching), timers and counters (for timing and counting) were utilised for achieving desired industrial automation. But these systems also resulted into bulky panels. A lot of wiring was involved so time come to complete task was higher. Defect investigation & troubleshooting was complex.
Electronic Control using Logic Gates: In early 60s electronics dominated the process, electronic logic gates were utilised for achieving logical operations. they replaced switching devices like relays and contactors inside the control circuits. Electronic times & counters replaced mechanical timers & counters. see this site to using electronics space as well as requirements reduced, maintenance requirement reduced & systems were more reliable.