What is Industrial Automation & How it Evolved
What is industrial Automation
Industrial Automation is a technique where we make give over human control to machines. In industrial automation machines are developed to accomplish the tasks which individuals accustomed to achieve. Why it is done? Because of its advantages:
Through Industrial automation we are able to do mass production with less manpower
Quality of the strategy is increased
Safety of individual & equipment is increased
More accurate process control
Since human intervention is less so reliability in the system is higher
Systems operate is low power supply, more electronic control so equipment every day life is 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 used to control the process at each step. Human intervention was there at each and every step. Drawbacks were inferior output, errors involved with human involvement affected compromised safety, wastage of raw material, and accuracy of human action.
Then came Pneumatic Control: Industrial automation with this era was achieved through invention of pneumatic controllers in early 1920s. Automation was achieved by controlling air to pneumatic valves, which in turn were actually switched on/off by relays and switches. panelview 800 were very bulky and changing in the logic was very complex procedure since a great deal of rework was required to accomplish difference in logic. So time taken up complete task changes was very high
Hard wired logic control: contactors, relays (for switching), timers and counters (for timing and counting) were utilized for achieving desired industrial automation. But these systems also resulted into bulky panels. A lot of wiring was involved so time taken up 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 utilized for achieving logical operations. they replaced switching devices like relays and contactors in the control circuits. Electronic times & counters replaced mechanical timers & counters. Due to usage of electronics space and requirements reduced, maintenance requirement reduced & systems were more reliable.