Every industry professional has heard of PLC/PACs (programmable logic controllers/programmable automation controllers) and most have used them. But when do you choose a PLC/PAC to make your control system function optimally for your application? In a recent presentation, Rich Carpenter, general manager, product management for Machine Automation Solutions, took on this very topic.
Some industrial plants are centralized enterprises, set up using highly integrated systems that, once operational, are maintained, but seldom changed. Some, however, are not and that’s when PLC/PACs become an important part of plant automation. PLC/PACs are ideal control solutions when:
To further explain this, Rich divided industry into three main categories. First is heavy industrials such as metals & mining, water treatment, oil & gas and chemical that are characterized by harsh environments. Second is light industrials like food and beverage, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, and consumer goods, which are frequently high-speed and/or high-volume unit production. The final category is high-tech industrial including computers, semiconductors, medical device, and electronics all of which include complexity in process, speed and/or build process. For more specific understanding, Rich then further divided industry into four types of automation – continuous, batch, hybrid and discrete, as shown in Figure 1.
In transport-centric applications such as T&D, pipeline, water and mining are areas where PLC/SCADA can be an important part of the automation system because these industries have geographically distributed equipment, are highly cost sensitive, often self-maintained and require regulatory reporting.
In hybrid manufacturing, PLC/PAC systems are important in pharmaceutical, food and beverage, consumer goods, plastics, paper and textiles. These applications have high speed/high volume requirements, a mix of process and discrete control, a variety of equipment suppliers and include a production and compliance reporting focus.
In discrete manufacturing applications, such as in the automotive and computer/tablet industries, PLC/PAC systems are an important component. The reasons are the high option mix, high cost of downtime, frequent model changes, the orchestration of production through supervisory control, and the demand for production reporting and traceability.
Why are PLC/PAC systems ideal in these industries and types of manufacturing? First, they enable decentralized discrete control:
Plus, by means of HMI/SCADA, these systems enable decentralized supervisory control:
Obviously, any one of these points can be expanded into its own blog, but this overview will give users a clearer idea as to when PLC/PAC systems need to be considered for specific applications. In addition to excellent flexibility and scalability, PLC/PAC systems give users access to edge control thereby allowing plants to easily and conveniently develop industrial IoT solutions. High performance compute at the edge enables local analysis and optimization, while cloud platforms bring the power of big data analysis for deep insights across the enterprise – but that’s another topic.
When considering control solutions for a specific application, remember:
Emerson is actively integrating its PLC/PAC systems and working with customers on comprehensive plant automation solutions to propel customers forward in digital transformation.
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