Industrial automation – inLiteTech https://inlitetech.com Your Tech support & Navigator Sun, 27 Jun 2021 09:42:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://inlitetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-cropped-3f2682645d8e490195ae7306fbc0f5cc-2-32x32.png Industrial automation – inLiteTech https://inlitetech.com 32 32 What is process automation? https://inlitetech.com/what-is-process-automation/ https://inlitetech.com/what-is-process-automation/#respond Sat, 12 Jun 2021 13:48:30 +0000 https://inlitetech.com/?p=132 What exactly does automation mean? Automation is the use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or other production process. This typically includes the use of PLCs, sensors, robots, and motors among many other things depending on the automated process. Almost any process can become automated. It can save time and money to automate an industrial process. It also helps eliminate human error. Another upside is that the use of automation creates many high paying careers for maintenance workers, engineers, and programmers.

A simple, everyday example of automation would be an ordinary pull in and park automatic car wash. If we break it down step by step, it should help you understand how automation works. Once you select your wash, that input will run a certain program on the controller. Next, you drive forward until a sensor is flagged, starting the wash cycle and another sensor tells the driver when to stop. From there, the wash will continue through the cycle that the controller is running. In a typical car wash, the nozzle spraying the water and chemicals will travel alongside a vehicle and a sensor will detect when it is past the vehicle. This saves time, water, and chemicals by controlling when the nozzles spray, as well as serves as an input to advance to the next step of the wash. Once the car is sprayed, the program tells the wash to spray the next chemical. This is done by the controller turning on and off each pump as it is needed. The controller then runs through the rest of the cycle and wash that was selected in the beginning. Once all steps have been completed, the driver will be signalled to pull out of the wash.

Essentially, the only human intervention in the process is the driver selecting what wash they want. Industrial automation works exactly the same way. Each industrial process needs to be started by some sort of input. That input can be a sensor, pushbutton ,switch, among many other possibilities. Typically a person will start the process with one of these input devices or it could be a sensor that detects an object automatically. Those inputs will go to a PLC to which will then make decisions based on how it was programmed. The PLC will then activate whatever  output the program says to run. An output can be anything that does work such  as a motor, solenoid, heater, or a light. In an automated process, that output will typically act as an input to the PLC and combined with other input devices or programming, to keep the process running. With this programming, it can act like a chain reaction with one output device starting before the next is allowed to run. This is also called sequential starting. Automation has to have many aspects working together in order to function properly. An automated process will continue its cycle until it receives a stop signal. That can come from a physical input such as a stop button or sensor, or something programmed like a timer.

Let’s look back at what we now know. Automation is an automatic process, typically controlled by computers and sensors. There is usually very little human intervention. Input devices, such as sensors and switches, will work with a controller or PLC to activate output devices like motors or other machinery. The PLC will advance as it was programmed. Industrial robots are great examples of process automation as they are commonly being used to replace humans in pallet loading operations.

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What is Automation? https://inlitetech.com/what-is-automation/ https://inlitetech.com/what-is-automation/#respond Fri, 04 Jun 2021 18:39:08 +0000 https://inlitetech.com/?p=1
What is automation

In this short article, you will learn what industrial automation is a basic and simplified method.

Ok let’s just say I go into the room and it’s dark. Now what should I do first when I walk into a dark room? Yes, I have to turn on the light. That means I have to press a button on the wall by hand and turn on the light.

Now let’s say instead of changing the wall, I’ll put a sensor in that room. This sensor has a simple open connection within it, like a standard switch.

The way this sensor works is the best way we look in a room and when it sees someone enter the room, the open contact will be closed and then that, the light will flash automatically. When a person leaves the room and there is no one there, the contact will reopen and this time the light will be turned off automatically.

So with this sensor installed, I no longer need to press any button on the wall when I enter or exit a room. With the new system, everything goes automatically, which means that when I enter a room, the sensor automatically kicks off the light and when I leave the room and no one else is there, the light goes out.

Now when we consider lighting a lamp in a room as a process, we can say that when I need to press the switch on the wall, the process happens manually and when the lamp lights up and turns itself off, when someone enters or leaves the room, the process happens automatically. So here I have manual vs automatic. Now what is the difference between the two? The automatic method is also more energy efficient. Because this way when I walk out of the room and no one else is there, the sensor will turn off the light after a few seconds. In this way, I would expect to see real energy savings here too. So this is a basic example of manual vs automatic process.

Now let’s bring the same concept to the factory, manual vs automatic concept. When we are going to produce a product, there is always a first line and a thread. The first line is when the materials enter the factory and the line is where the final product is made and ready to be shipped. Between the first and the last lines, there is a process that transforms the raw material into that final product. So I have a process. Consumables can be considered as the inclusion of this process and the final product can be considered as an output or as a final result.

Now as the process of turning on and off the lamp, this process of factory production, can be done manually or automatically. With the booking process, we can hire a few staff members to do the job but by default, we can set up a system that can take care of the whole production process or at least some parts of it automatically. For example, suppose you start a cake business and want to make your own cakes. To make cakes, you will need a production process where all the necessary ingredients go in when the ingredients and the delicious cake come out as an extract. Now at the beginning of your business, if you are on a tight budget and have few customers, you can hire one or more employees and train them to make cakes based on your recipes.

With this handmade production process, you may be able to make cakes at the right speed and with consistent quality. But as your business grows, trying to make more handmade cakes with high quality compatibility will be very difficult. Why? Because people make mistakes. For example, if one of your co-workers adds one ingredient, that cake will not be the same quality as the other cakes and if this happens too often, your business will start to lose customers and eventually lose money.

Now what should you do to solve this problem? To solve this problem you will need to hire an engineering company to help you transform this cake production process into a default process. With the new automated production process, you will have fewer employees and more equipment. This means that with the new system in place, your equipment will take care of most of the work that has been done by employees before and they will do it quickly, easily and efficiently. So with an automated process, you can make more cakes of the same quality every time and this helps your business grow faster.

The same principles apply to other industries, such as automotive, steel, or oil and gas. In order for these industries to produce the final product according to new standards, they need to have an automated production process. So industrial automation is about big processes, with high quality and consistent accuracy. When we need to produce a product on a large scale with consistent quality at the same time, we need to hire an engineering company to design the automated production process for our business or factory. Many of you have commented that this is the easiest learning environment you’ve ever encountered. I hope you understand what automation is?

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