Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wa0004.
Wa0004.
Automation
1-1 INTRODUCTION
The word “Automation” was rst used at the Ford Motor Company in the
late 1940. One de nition of automation was proposed in 1947 as “the automatic
handling of work pieces into, between, and out of machines”.
The Automation means automatic manufacturing without human control.
Automation is a technology concerned with the application of mechanical,
electronics and computer based systems to operate and control production.
This technology includes:
• Automatic machine tools to process parts
• Automatic assembly machines
• Industrial robots
• Automatic material handling and storage systems
• Automatic inspection systems for quality control
• Feedback control and computer process control
• Computer systems for planning, data collection, and making to support
manufacturing activities
The objective of automation is to cause the work system to be automatic that
is self acting, self regulating, and self reliant. But because of practical limitations
1
2 PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER
of environmental, social and economical variables the work stations are made
partially automated.
labor input. Higher production rate (output per hour) are achieved with automation
than with the corresponding manual operations.
High cost of labor. The high cost of labor is forcing business leaders to
substitute machines for human labor. Because machines can produce at higher rates
of output, the use of automation results in a lower cost per unit product.
Labor shortage. In many advanced nations there has been a general
shortage of labor. Labor shortages also stimulate the development of automation
as a substitute for labor.
Safety. By automating the operations and transferring the operator from an
active participation to a supervisory role is made safer.
High cost of raw material. The high cost of raw material in manufacturing
results in the need for greater ef ciency in using these materials. The reduction of
scrap is one of the bene ts of automation.
Improved product quality. Automated operations not only produce parts
faster rate than do their manual counterparts, but they produce parts with greater
consistency and conformity to quality speci cations.
Reduction in process inventory. Holding large inventories of work-in-
progress represents a signi cant cost to the manufacturer because it ties with
capital. Automation tends to accomplish this goal by reducing the time a work-part
spends in the factory.
Reduction in manufacturing lead time. Automation allows the
manufacturer to reduce the time between customer order and product delivery. This
gives the manufacturer a competitive advantage in promoting good customer service.
Better labor relations, higher sales, better company image, less oor space
are also the advantages of automation.
• SCADA: SCADA is a acronym that is formed from the rst letters of the
term “Supervisory control and data acquisition”. It is a supervisory control
and data acquisition system. SCADA is technology that enables a user to
collect data from one or more distant facilities and/or send limited control
instructions to those facilities. (See Figure 1-9)
8 PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER
1-7 APPLICATIONS
Automatic systems are used in space vehicles, transportation, hospitals,
aircrafts, home appliances, metal working, automobile manufacturing, process
industries etc. In process industries various process parameters such as temperature,
pressure, level, ow are monitored and controlled by the automatic systems. Bottle,
bags and drum lling operations are sequentially controlled by the automatic
systems. In mechanical industries, workshops the drilling, nishing, cutting etc
operations are performed automatically by the automatic systems such as CNC,FMS
machines. Water distribution, gas lling terminals, oil lling terminals, electricity
generation, electricity distribution, re neries the automatic system SCADA is used.
Now-a-days the tea, coffee vending machine operations are atomically controlled by
automatic systems such as PLC. In Cargo ships the various operations are controlled
by automatic systems. Chemical reactor, boiler, heat exchanger, dryer, crystallizer
such unit operations are monitored and controlled with the automatic systems. In
fertilizer, chemical, petroleum, cement industries the plant operations automatically
controlled by DCS system. Automobile industry, mechanical industry, space vehicles
the Robotic systems are used.
10 PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER
SUMMARY
• Automation is a technology concerned with the application of mechanical,
electronics and computer based systems to operate and control production.
• Fixed, programmable, exible, of ce, home, building automation are the
types of automation.
• Fixed automation is a system in which the sequence of processing (or
assembly) operations is xed by the equipment con guration.
• In programming automation the production equipment is designed with the
capability to change the sequence of operations to accommodate different
product con gurations.
• A exible automated system is one that is capable of producing a variety
of products (or parts) with virtually no time lost changeovers from one
product to the next.
• Non-manufacturing automation include of ce automation and integrated
data processing mechanism, automatic elevators, transportation ticket
selling equipments. etc.
• SCADA, PLC, DCS, FMS, CNC machine, robots, CIM, CAE systems are
used for automation.
• Improvement in product quality and production rate, reduction in
manufacturing lead time, reduced inventory are the advantages of
automation.
• Automatic systems are used in space vehicles, transportation, hospitals,
aircrafts, home appliances, process industries, automobile manufacturing
etc.
AUTOMATION 15
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. De ne the term automation.
2. How and where automation is applicable?
3. What is the objectives of automation?
4. State the advantages and disadvantages of automation.
5. Explain the strategies of automation.
AUTOMATION 17
6. Give the forms of automation and explain each in short.
7. What are the types of automation?
8. Explain in brief the xed automation.
9. What do know about of ce automation?
10. State the difference between xed and programmable automation.
11. Explain the programmable automation.
12. State the features of programmable automation.
13. Which are the systems used for automation?
14. List the applications of automation technology.
15. What is home automation?
16. What do you know about building automation?
17. What is a SCADA?
FURTHER READINGS
1. Douglas M. Considine: Standard Handbook of Industrial Automation.
2. Roger W. Bolz: Manufacturing Automation Management Handbook.
3. Mikell P. Groover: Automation, production systems and computer integrated
manufacturing.
4. Buckingham: Automation: Harper and Row publisher.