For a sequence of operations to be performed repetitively.

Early automation systems were mechanical in design, timing and sequencing being affected by gears and cams. Slowly these design concepts were replaced by electrical drives which were controlled by relays. The relay does have a number of limitations: It suffers from contact wear and reliability problems. Being single input, multi-output, it is often completely unsuited for controlling sequencing in industrial processes. The relays are HARD-WIRED. Hard-wired systems were very expensive to produce due to the high labor content, and modifications were both difficult and time consuming. At present, A programmable logic controller, is a solid-state device, designed to operate in noisy industrial environments and perform all the logic functions previously achieved using electro-mechanical relays, drum switches, mechanical timers and counters. Advantages of PLCs may be outlined as follows: Deferred design, that is, the PLC can be mass produced without any task in mind, the program can be entered on the factory floor by anyone who understands relay ladder logic. The outputs may be a mixture of conventional relays and solid state relays. Designed for an electrically noisy environment no extra filtering required. They are smaller, faster acting and more reliable than hard-wired systems. They may be programmed using a high level, graphic display that is understood by all electrical maintenance engineers. Drum switches, timers, counters, are all obtained using software programs. No physical devices exist.

Fig1:The Basic PLC Archtecture

Basic relay Ladder Logic

For

example consider the following example, where The corresponding relay ladder logic diagram for the circuitry is shown.

Now corresponding ladder logic diagram for PLC is as follows