Book Image

Industrial Automation from Scratch

By : Olushola Akande
Book Image

Industrial Automation from Scratch

By: Olushola Akande

Overview of this book

Industrial automation has become a popular solution for various industries looking to reduce manual labor inputs and costs by automating processes. This book helps you discover the abilities necessary for excelling in this field. The book starts with the basics of industrial automation before progressing to the application of switches, sensors, actuators, and motors, and a direct on-line (DOL) starter and its components, such as circuit breakers, contactors, and overload relay. Next, you'll explore VFDs, their parameter settings, and how they can be wired and programmed for induction motor control. As you advance, you'll learn the wiring and programming of major industrial automation tools – PLCs, HMIs, and SCADA. You’ll also get to grips with process control and measurements (temperature, pressure, level, and flow), along with analog signal processing with hands-on experience in connecting a 4–20 mA transmitter to a PLC. The concluding chapters will help you grasp various industrial network protocols such as FOUNDATION Fieldbus, Modbus, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, and HART, as well as emerging trends in manufacturing (Industry 4.0) and its empowering technologies (such as IoT, AI, and robotics). By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a practical understanding of industrial automation concepts for machine automation and control.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Learning the Concepts and Skills Required to Get Started
8
Part 2: Understanding PLC, HMI, and SCADA
14
Part 3: Process Control, Industrial Network, and Smart Factory

Introducing HMIs

HMIs can be seen as graphical interfaces that allow humans and machines to interact. We have learned that PLCs can control and automate industrial machines. HMIs, on the other hand, allow humans to interact or communicate with machines. No matter how we automate a process, we still need a human (an operator) to start or initiate the process, perform other functions, and get feedback on the machine’s operation.

HMIs allow humans to give commands to PLCs to control a process and also receive feedback from PLCs about the process. With HMIs, the human operator can interact with, monitor, and control machines via the PLC. The HMI is usually connected to the PLC via a communication cable, depending on the protocol being used (Ethernet/IP, Profinet, Profibus, or Modbus). This chapter does not discuss protocols. We will look into protocols in Chapter 13, Industrial Network and Communication Protocols Fundamentals. However, we will use Profinet as the protocol to...