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

3 Actuators and Their Applications in Industrial Automation

In the previous chapter, we related the way humans function to automation. The eyes, touch, and smell were likened to switches and sensors while the controller was likened to the brain. In this chapter, we will be looking at actuators, which can be likened to the hands. In our bodily system, the hands do what the brain tells them to do. Similarly, in automation, the actuator does what the controller tells it to do. An actuator is simply a mover. It can move, carry, or perform other similar functions just like the hand. It requires a control signal from a controller to carry out its actions. The control signal is the result of the processing done by the controller through the program (set of instructions) written into it. Industrial automation is not complete without an actuator.

This chapter will explain various actuators used in industrial automation. You will learn their basic principle of operation and about their application...