PLCs for Drives in Automation Industry

 

Variable speed drives have conveyed fixed and intelligent motion control to a variety of industrial applications. The manufacturing industry alone depends upon machines, which rotate and move materials, cool air, heat air with fans, pump liquids, pack and stack completed products. They do so as part of a series of interconnected processes, which are mostly automated.

To work as they do in this setting, drives rely entirely on the PLCs (programmable logic controller) controlling and co-coordinating power.

Why PLCs are best suited for jobs?

PLCs were made to replace the hardwired banks of power relays that were previously used to operate factory machines with the power of a computer. Massive enclosures faced the technician with walls of relays, timers, counters, fuses, and terminals among swaths of crisscrossed, point-to-point wire, making it challenging to maintain and diagnose these archaic electromechanical nerve centres. Replacing a failing coil or worn-out contact was difficult enough; changing the system's purpose could necessitate a complete overhaul.

The influence of PLCs on the automation sector

PLCs have revolutionised the automation industry, allowing for unprecedented visibility and control over complex mechanical systems. Gone are the days when a single unidentified 'defect' might bring a production plant to a standstill. And, for all of their processing capacity, their long-term success has been largely owing to their inherent simplicity.

However, no technology is immune to advancement indefinitely. And, in the end, PLCs are just as liable as anything else to reflect major changes in the way machines and gadgets are constructed.

Continuous Improvement

Miniaturisation, in particular, which was responsible for the transfer of early electronic activity from the relay wall to the circuit board, continues to shrink processors, component parts, and circuit boards. As a result, PLCs are growing more powerful (faster and with significantly increased memory capacity) while shrinking in size. A single PLC may now easily perform the functions of multiple predecessors. Their ability to accommodate numerous communication protocols at the same time, or the fact that their software engineers can mix and match different programming languages, are examples of their advancement.

Of course, the irony is that this degree of skill is not required for the control of any equipment, including ac drives. When basic efficiency is the priority, complicated capacity may be an afterthought at best and a liability at worst (for instance in terms of cybersecurity). As a result, a new generation of machine controllers – tiny PLC-like devices – has emerged to take on some of the tasks that high-end PLCs can no longer handle.

 A controller of this sort for a variable speed drive supplied onboard, bespoke-programmed, and with an intuitive graphic interface, is relatively inexpensive, time-saving, and straightforward to use, albeit memory and input/output capabilities are limited compared to a PLC (as well as to integrate with the larger network or system).

PLCs and drives: a match made in heaven?

As a result, the conventional relationship between drives and PLCs is undergoing a transformation. It's an upheaval that only old-school system architecture may be able to withstand. The core premise – that drives may be made smarter by using programming power – remains as strong as ever.