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Types of industrial automation systems

Once you have defined the process you are considering, it is time to determine the type of system that should be removed; Hard or fixed automation, programmable automation and soft or flexible automation, choose one according to their characteristics which will be explained in detail below.

Hard or fixed automation

This type of automation is used to perform fixed and repetitive operations to achieve higher production rates. Fixed automation is used for a specific purpose or specific equipment to automate a series of fixed assembly or processing operations. By using this type of automation, changing or diversifying the product design will be relatively difficult. Therefore, this automation is used in providing a variety of hard and inflexible products, but increases efficiency by increasing production and reducing unit costs.

Programmable automation

In this automation, a certain class of product is changed or the assembly or processing operation may be changed by modifying the control program in the automatic equipment.

This type of automation is the best option for the batch production process whose production volume is from medium to high. But in this automation, it is difficult to change and reset the system for a new product or sequence of operations. Because the introduction of a new product or the reorganization of operations requires a long corrective operation. Examples of applications of this automation can be; Counting machines, paper machines, steel pipe machines, industrial robots and so on.

Soft or flexible automation

This automation system provides automatic control equipment that has high flexibility to make changes in product design. These changes can be implemented quickly through commands provided in the form of code by the human operator.

This automation allows manufacturers to produce multiple products with different ranges and use a combined method instead of separate production. Some examples of this automation system are: automatic vehicles, cars and CNC multi-purpose machines.

Hierarchy of industrial automation system

Industrial automation systems can be inherently very complex and have a large number of devices working in automation. In the following, we will examine the hierarchy levels of the automation system according to the following image, which is often observed in all automations;

Hierarchy in industrial automation

Hierarchy in industrial automation

Field Level

This is the lowest level of an automation system that includes field equipment, including sensors and actuators. The main task of this part of the system is to transfer the information of processes and machines to a higher level for monitoring and analyzing information.

Sensors convert real, time-based data such as temperature, pressure, current, surface, and so on into electrical signals. The information received by the sensor will be transferred to the upstream part for analysis and execution of necessary commands.

Operators, on the other hand, will convert the electrical read more  signals received by the controllers into mechanical work. Current control valves, solenoid valves, relays, electric motors and servomotors are examples of actuators in the automation 

system.

Control Level

This section includes various automation machines such as CNC machines, PLCs, etc. that take information from sensors and process it. Based on this information, the automatic controllers will launch the operators to perform the required activity and give them the necessary command.

PLC is one of the most powerful and accurate controllers that is widely used in industry. The PLC is able to send control commands based on the input it receives from the sensors. PLC includes various modules including CPU, digital I / O, analog I / O and communication modules. The PLC has the ability to be programmed by the user and perform the requested actions as expected.