What is industrial Automation

Industrial Automation is a technique through which we make give human control to machines. In industrial automation machines are developed to accomplish the tasks which individuals utilized to achieve. Why it is done? Because of its advantages:

Through Industrial automation we could do mass production with less manpower

Quality in the technique is increased

Safety of man & equipment is 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 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 Modicon m580 was achieved through manual control, operators used to control the procedure at each step. Human intervention was there at every step. Drawbacks were substandard quality output, errors involved with human involvement affected compromised safety, wastage of raw material, and accuracy of human action.

Then came Pneumatic Control: Industrial automation in this era was achieved through invention of pneumatic controllers in early 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 with the logic was very complex procedure since lots of rework was needed 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 chosen 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 procedure, electronic logic gates were utilized for achieving logical operations. they replaced switching devices like relays and contactors within the control circuits. Electronic times & counters replaced mechanical timers & counters. Due to use of electronics space as well as requirements reduced, maintenance requirement reduced & systems were more reliable.