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 PLC programming devices

These are devices or tools used to write, edit, and dump programs to the PLC. They can also help in troubleshooting PLCs. There are two common programming devices:

  • Handheld devices
  • Personal Computers (PCs)

Handheld devices are usually connected to the PLC via a cable. They consist of keys for entering a program, editing a program, and dumping or delivering a program to the PLC. They also consist of a small display for viewing instructions. They are small in size and have limited capability.

A PC is the most popular programming device. A programming software from the PLC manufacturer can be installed on a PC for writing a program, editing a program, and dumping or delivering a program to the PLC. A (communication) cable is also required between the PC and PLC. We will focus on using a PC as a programming device in this book.

Let’s proceed to learn about PLC programming software.

Looking at the different PLC programming software

In Chapter 7...