Introduction to Industrial Automation and

Control
Introduction

Definitions
 Industry is a systematic economic activity that could be related to manufacture/service/trade.
 Automation is a set of technologies that results in operation of machines and systems without
significant human intervention and achieves performance superior to manual operation.
 Control is the act of making process variables and operational sequences behave in a particular way
or follow desired patterns of variations.
 The main function of control systems is to ensure that outputs follow the set points
 Automation systems may have much more functionality, such as computing set points for control
systems, monitoring system performance, plant start up or shut down, job and equipment
scheduling etc. Automation systems may include control systems (as constituent parts) but the
reverse is not true.

Benefits/Role of Automation in Industry

The major objective of an industry is to make profits. Profit can be maximised by producing good quality
products, which may sell at higher price, in larger volumes with less production cost and time.

As compared to manual methods, automated systems benefit the industry as follows:

 They have significantly lower production times.
 Their use reduces material handling time.
 They enable efficient utilisation of energy.
 They produce products of better quality. Moreover, the same quality of a particular product may be
achieved for thousands of units.

Types of Control Systems

 The two types are closed loop control systems and sequencing systems.
 In closed loop control, a process variable is required to be at a particular level.
o Examples are temperature control of a furnace, level control in a tank, frequency (speed)
control of a power generator.
o Basically consists of a sensor, a controller and an actuator in a negative feedback
configuration.
 In sequencing systems, a machine is required to follow a sequence of steps whilst production is
taking place.
o Consists of a number of sensors, a controller and a number of actuators.
o The actuator states depend on the sensor states as well as the sequence that the controller
is designed to follow
o A step may be a closed loop control process.

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  An example is mixing of raw materials for glass making, a process known as batching:
o Glass is produced from a mix of seven raw materials, sand being one of the major raw
materials. The raw materials are mixed according to certain weight ratios before they are
melted into molten glass.
o Raw materials are stored in respective silos each one of which has a spout arranged to
offload the raw material into a mixer.
o The mixer has ploughs that can be turned to mix the raw materials and rest on load cells to
monitor its weight. Raw materials are added into the mixer in turns whilst the mixer weight
is being monitored.
o Steps for adding a raw material are: note the initial weight, feed raw material into mixer at a
course speed; when close to required weight reduce feed rate to a finer rate; when within
tolerance range of the required weight, stop the feed. Meanwhile the ploughs will be
turning.
o When all raw materials have been added and mixed, the outlet of the mixer is opened to let
out the mix onto a conveyor belt. Weight is monitored throughout until the mixer is
recorded as empty.
o THE BATCHING MACHINE IS BUILT TO AUTOMATICALLY CARRY OUT THIS SEQUENCE OF
STEPS BY FOLLOWING A CERTAIN SEQUENCE OF STATES.
 A second example is filling of a bottle for example at Delta Beverages:
o clamp bottle in position:
o open supply valve until 300ml have been delivered
o close supply valve
o release bottle to proceed along the conveyor belt.
o THE FILLING MACHINE IS DESIGNED TO CARRY OUT THIS SEQUENCE OF STEPS BY
FOLLOWING A CERTAIN SEQUENCE OF STATES.
 A third example is stacking of crates for drinks:
o Six bottles are counted as they pass a counting point on a conveyor belt after which the six
are lifted and placed in a crate.
o The above step is repeated 4 times after which the crate is transferred out.
o The crate is lifted onto a conveyor belt after which the process repeats.
o THE PACKING MACHINE IS DESIGNED TO CARRY OUT THIS SEQUENCE OF STEPS BY
FOLLOWING A CERTAIN SEQUENCE OF STATES.

Examples of Industrial Automation and Control

Container glass formation

Glass is produced from a mix made from seven raw materials, one of the major ones being sand. The mix is
charged into a furnace where it is melted to produce molten glass from which container glasses can be
formed.

The glass forming machine

Glass containers are formed using blow processes on a machine called forming machine. The machine has a
number of sections typically six so that it can work on more than one container at a time. Each section has
the following:
 An initial blow mould where the container preform is formed from molten glass.

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  A final blow mould where the preform is blown into the final glass container product.
 Mechanisms to perform the blowing operations, transfer preforms from the initial blow mould into
the final blow mould as well as to transfer the final product from the final blow mould onto a
conveyor belt that takes the product away.

Furnace

Furnace spout

Mechanisms on the
forming machine

Final blow mould Initial blow mould

Conveyor belt Mould

Machine base

Figure 1.1 side view of arrangement

The container glass forming process

 A piece of molten glass is dropped into the initial blow mould.
 The mould is closed, a container inlet being punched in the process.
 Air is blown from the inlet to force the molten onto the internal surface of the mould thus producing
a preform container. The glass partially solidifies at this stage.
 The preform is taken out of the initial blow mould into the final blow mould.
 Air is blown into the preform so as to further blow it out into a final glass container product.
 The container is taken out onto a conveyor belt that carries it away from the machine.

Control of the machine

 The machine has a number of actuators that effect the various glass forming stages.
 It also has some sensors to sense completion of various stages in the process as well as control
switches to receive operator commands.
 The sensors and switches feed into a controller that in turn turns on and off the actuators in a
desired sequence and in accordance with requirements of sensed states and operator switches.
 There is closed loop speed control of the conveyor belt so that its speed is at the right level to take
away containers at a rate that corresponds to the rate at which they are being produced by the
machine.

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  There is also temperature control of the molten glass so that it is at the level suitable for the forming
stages of the containers.
 There might also be some temperature control of the moulds

Sensing devices

Inputs

Outputs
and operator
switches
PLC Actuating devices

Figure 1.2

Container glass conditioning

After container glasses have been formed, they are brittle. Heat treatment is required to infer favourable
mechanical properties on the containers. This is achieved by taking the container glasses through a certain
temperature curve. Container glass conditioning is carried out in a furnace called an annealing lehr.

Fans

Furnace with temperature zones

Conveyor belt Motor shaft /roller

Electric heater elements

Figure 1.3 Side view of the annealing lehr

The annealing furnace

It is made up of zones, each of which is maintained at a particular temperature. A metal gauze conveyor belt
covering the breadth of the furnace runs through it and is maintained at some particular speed. Glassware is
stacked onto the belt at the entry point and is taken through the temperature zones, and hence the required
temperature-time curve so that by the time it leaves it will be exhibiting the required mechanical properties.

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The zones on the entry side have heater elements so as to heat up the glassware. Zones in the middle have
both heater elements and fans so as to provide a precise temperature control in them. The next zones are in
the region when the glassware is now being cooled down and may have fans only. Zones towards the end
have natural cooling to take the glassware to room temperature.

Control of the conditioning process

 Each zone has a closed loop temperature control. The system consists of a thermocouple, a loop
controller and electric heater elements powered via thyristor firing cards. The cards vary the power
input to the heaters based on the control signal received from the controller.
 Zones with fans will incorporate a fan as another actuator. The loop controller is able to give control
signals to two contra-actuators.
 Zones with fans only will incorporate a fan as the actuator.
 The conveyor belt features a speed control loop to ensure that the desired cooling curve is created.
It consists of a tachometer, a controller, an electronic drive, a motor, a gearbox and the belt. The
electronic drive varies power input to the motor so as to drive it at the speed dictated by the
controller.

Fan

Set point via a

keypad
Controller Thyristor Actual
Heater Lehr
firing temp.
element
card

Thermocouple

ZONAL TEMPERATURE CONTROL LOOP

Set point via a

keypad or from Motor
main controller Controller Conveyor Actual
VSD and speed
belt
gearbox

Thermocouple

BELT SPEED CONTROL LOOP

Figure 1.4 Annealing control loops

Automation and IT
 Industrial automation makes extensive use of Information Technology
 Fig. 1.5 shows some of the major IT areas that are used in the context of Industrial Automation.

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Figure 1.5