INDEX

 INTRODUCTION ABOUT AUTOMATION.

o AUTOMATION
o NEED OF AUTOMATION
o DISADVANTAGES
o TOOLS OF AUTOMATION
 INRODUCTION TO PLC
o PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER
o HISTORY OF PLC
o SIZE OF PLC
o ARCHITECTURE OF PLC
o LANGUAGES IN PLC
o HOW A PLC WORKS
o MANUFACTURES OF PLC
o DATA TYPES IN PLC
o MEMORY ADDRESS IN PLC
o MEMORY STRUCTURE OF PLC
o TIMERS IN PLC
o COUNTERS IN PLC
o COILS IN PLC
o INSTRUCTION IN PLC
o LOGIC GATES USING PLC
o LATCHING USING PLC
o SEQUENCE USING PLC
o MEMORY BIT
o TIMERS USING PLC
o SENSORS
o TYPES OF SENSORS
o ACUATORS
o TYPES OF ACUATORS
AUTOMATION
 The technique, method, or system of operating or controlling
a process by highly automatic means, as by electronic
devices, reducing human intervention to a minimum.
 A mechanical device, operated electronically, that functions
automatically, without continuous input from an operator.
 Act or process of automating.
 The state of being automated.
 Automation covers applications ranging from a household
thermostat controlling a boiler, to a large industrial control
system with tens of thousands of input measurements and
output control signals.
 In the simplest type of an automatic control loop, a
controller compares a measured value of a process with a
desired set value, and processes the resulting error signal to
change some input to the process, in such a way that the
process stays at its set point despite disturbances. This
closed-loop control is an application of negative feedback to
a system.
 Automation has been achieved by various means including
mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic
devices and computers, usually in combination.
 Complicated systems, such as modern factories, airplanes
and ships typically use all these combined techniques. The
benefit of automation includes labour savings, savings in
electricity costs, savings in material costs, and
improvements to quality, accuracy, and precision.
 NEED FOR AUTOMATION
 Automation is a necessity in industries because it not only
seeks improve the quality of life for humans at both home
and work, it allows the distribution of both quality products
and services to be made available at faster rates, and
reduces down time and human error.
 Increased volume of work, scarcity of time and the slow
manual processes necessitate the introduction of
automation.
 Revolution in office has been brought by automation
because increased volume of work is handled in a better
manner with greater accuracy and speed because of
automation. This process results in increased output.
 Automation increases the goodwill and reputation of the
firm because it adds to the prestige and status symbol of
the enterprise.

DISADVANTAGES OF
AUTOMATION
 Automation results in the state unemployment because
human labour is replaced by mechanical work.
 It requires huge investment and as such it goes beyond the
capacity of small scale firms to afford for automation.
 It brings about a complete change in the organizational
structure and involves a great deal of additional cost.
TOOLS OF AUTOMATION
 Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) – Find
new ways to operate faster.
 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) - Multiple input and
output arrangement
 Human Machine Interface (HMI) - Control industrial
automation equipment’s.
 Artificial Neural Network (ANN) – Responsible in
processing information.
 Distributed Control System (DCS) – Monitoring networks
 Robotics.
PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC
CONTROLLER
 The PLC receives information from connected sensors or
input devices, processes the data, and triggers outputs
based on pre-programmed parameters.
 Depending on the inputs and outputs, a PLC can monitor
and record run-time data such as machine productivity or
operating temperature, automatically start and stop
processes, generate alarms if a machine malfunctions, and
more.
 Programmable Logic Controllers are a flexible and robust
control solution, adaptable to almost any application.
 They can be designed for many arrangements of digital and
analog I/O, extended temperature ranges, immunity to
electrical noise, and resistance to vibration and impact.
Programs to control machine operation are typically stored
in battery-backed-up or non-volatile memory.

HISTORY OF PLC
 Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) first hit the scene in
the late 1960s. The primary reason for designing such a
device was eliminating the large cost involved in replacing
the complicated relay based machine control systems for
major U.S. car manufacturers.
 Dick Morley’s company Bedford Associates in
Massachusetts proposed something called a Modular Digital
Controller (MODICON). The MODICON 084 brought the
world’s first PLC into commercial production.
 Since then, a slow steady growth has allowed the
manufacturing and process control industries to take
advantage of PLC applications-oriented software—
programmable language that looks and feels like relay-
ladder-logic where any maintenance technician.
SIZE OF PLC

SMALL
 It covers units with up to 128 I/O’s and memories up to 2
Kbytes.
 These PLC’s are capable of providing simple to advance
levels or machine controls.

MEDIUM
 Have up to 2048 I/O’s and memories up to 32 Kbytes.

LARGE
 The most sophisticated units of the PLC family. They
have up to 8192 I/O’s and memories up to 750
Kbytes.
 Can control individual production processes or entire
plant.
 ARCHITECHTURE OF PLC


POWER SUPPLY:
It converts the mains AC voltage to the low DC voltage
(5v) necessary for the processor and the circuits in the input
and output interface.
 I/O MODULES:
The i/o section are where the processor receives the
information from external devices and communicates to
external devices.
 CPU:
It is a unit containing the microprocessor. This unit
interprets the input signal and carries out the control
actions according to the program stored in its memory.
 PROGRAMMING DEVICE:
Used to enter the desired program into the memory of
the processor.
 MEMORY UNIT:
 The program and control actions take place in this unit
and where the data is stored for the input and output for
processing.
 COMMUNICATION INTERFACE:
It is used to receive and transmit data on
communication n/w from or to other PLCs.
 OPTOCOUPLER:

An Optocoupler, is an electronic component that

interconnects two separate electrical circuits by means of a
light sensitive optical interface.
 LANGUAGES USED IN PLC

PLC programming languages are classified into five main

standards.

 Ladder diagram (LD):

 The ladder diagram is the universal programming

language of PLC. It has a short abbreviation as LD and
also known as Ladder Logic.
 It is used with programmable logic controllers. And it
is one of the oldest programming languages for PLC.
  Instruction List (IL):

 It uses the mnemonic code. So the syntax of this

programming language is easy to remember.
 In general, AB PLC brand works on the Instruction List
(IL) programming language.
 In an earlier article, I have mentioned different PLC
brands and their software. AB PLC is one of the
standard PLC brands.
 Structured Text (ST):

 The ‘ST’ and ‘STX’ are also other abbreviations used for
Structured Text PLC language.
 It uses high-level programming language syntax.
 The syntax of ST is similar to the syntax of a high-level
programming language with loops, variables,
conditions, and operators.
 Function Block Diagram (FBD):

 Function block diagram (FBD) is a popular and easy

way to write a program like a Ladder Diagram.
 FBD is represented like box which consists of a
number of lines of code for putting different
programming functions.
 It is a graphical language for programming logic
controller. So, it makes your job easy to describe a
system.
 Sequential Function Charts (SFC):
 Sequential function charts (SFC) is also a graphical
programming language. It is not a text base.
 It has become a popular method of accurately
specifying sequential control requirements.
 The benefit of SFC is easy to understand. Because you
can visualize what is happening and when it is
happening in the procedure of the code.
 How Does a PLC work?
The working of a PLC can be easily understood as a cyclic
scanning method known as the scan cycle.

A PLC Scan Process includes the following steps:

 The operating system starts cycling and monitoring of time.

 The CPU starts reading the data from the input module and
checks the status of all the inputs.
 The CPU starts executing the user or application program
written in relay-ladder logic or any other PLC-programming
language.
 Next, the CPU performs all the internal diagnosis and
communication tasks.
 According to the program results, it writes the data into the
output module so that all outputs are updated.
 This process continues as long as the PLC is in run mode.
 Some of the manufacturers of
PLCs
 Allen Bradley
 ABB
 Siemens
 Mitsubishi PLC
 Hitachi PLC
 Delta PLC
 General Electric (GE) PLC
 Honeywell PLC

DATA TYPES IN PLC

MEMORY ADDRESS IN PLC
MEMORY STRUCTURE OF PLC

TIMERS IN PLC
PLC use three types of timers which are as following:
 ON Delay Timer (TON)

 OFF Delay Timer (TOF)

 Pulse Timer
ON DELAY TIMER
First one of the standard timers is the on delay timer also known as just
TON. This is by far the most used timer in PLC programming. You will find
this in any platform and it is in fact so useful that you can build the other
timer functions with the on delay timer.
The functionality of the on delay timer (TON) can be described like this:
 Output is turned ON after a delay.
 This delay is called the pre-set time (PT). The delay said in another
way, is how long you want the timer to be turned on.
 When you turn on the input (IN) the timer will start timing (turning
on the timer).
 Elapsed time (ET) is the current time of the timer. Here you can
always see how long the timer has been turned on.

OFF DELAY TIMER

The second standard PLC timer is the off delay timer or just
TOF. My best way to remember how it works is again by its
name.
It is called an off delay timer because it works like this:
 Output is turned OFF after a delay
 One of the biggest differences between this and the on delay
timer is how you activate it.
 As soon as you turn on the input of this timer, the output is
also turned on.
  This is because in order for the output to be turned OFF
(after a delay) it needs to be turned on in the beginning.
 The timer will not be activated before you turn the input off
again. When you do that the timer will start counting and
after the delay, the output will be turned off.

PULSE TIMER
The final one of the 3 standard timers is called the Pulse Timer or
PT.
 Although this timer is not so commonly used it is still a very
useful timer function.
 This timer is a little different than the two others, since this
one is used to generate pulses. Yes, that is also how we can
describe its functionality:
 Generates a pulse of a specific length
 You can activate the timer by turning on the input. When
that happens the timer will start counting time. As a
parameter for the pulse timer the time for the pulse is
defined.
 COUNTERS IN PLC
 A PLC counter is a function block that counts up or
down until it reaches a limit. When the limit is reached
the output is set.
 PLC counters are also used to assist logging to SCADA
systems by counting the amount of times these events
have happened or setting alarms when an event has
happened a certain amount of times.
 Counters use variables of certain data types to store
numbers in the PLC. All counters need to store at least
two numbers:
 Counter Limit
 Current Counter Value
 Since these two numbers are saved in a certain data type
they also have their limits. Many PLC’s save these two
numbers as WORD or Integer data types and if you
remember the basics of PLC data types, you will know that a
WORD takes up 16 bits.
 A signed integer also takes up 16 bits, but the first one is
used for signing, so you will only have 15 bits for the actual
number
 With a little bit of calculation, we’ll quickly find out that the
maximum value of a WORD is 16.535. The maximum value
of the signed integer is 32.767.
 Although it is rare that you will need to count to such high
numbers, it is still important know to avoid overflow errors.

Up Counter (CTU)
 The first counter instruction I will introduce you to is the up
counter, also known as just CTU. As the name implies, this
PLC counter is used for counting up.
 The way it works is that it will set an output, when is has
counted a certain amount of times. To be a little more
specific this is how it works.

 WORKING
 Each pulse on the count input (CU) will increase the
current counter value (CV) by 1. When CV is greater
than or equal to the counter limit (PV) the output (Q) is
set. A pulse on the reset input (R) will reset the value
of CV to 0.
Down Counter (CTD)
 Counting down is another operation that is widely
used in PLC programming. In some cases, you want to
know how many counts are remaining before the limit
is reached. With the up counter you can use some
math to do it. But you can do it easily with a down
counter.
 Because with the down counter you will count down
from a certain number until it reaches 0.
 The down counter has a pin called LD instead of the
reset. It is called load and is used for loading a value
into the current counter value. Because when you
count down to 0 you will need some initial value of the
counter.

 WORKING
 Each pulse on the count input (CD) will
decrement current counter value (CV) by 1. When
CV is less than or equal to 0 the output (Q) is set.
A pulse on the load input (LD) will assign the
value of counter limit (PV) to CV.
Up Down Counter (CTUD)
 The up down counter which can count both ways.
Sometimes the combination of the up and the
down counter can be useful. You can count the
same number both up and down and set both an
upper and a lower limit.
 The whole idea about this counter is that it can
count both up and down the same current
counter value (CV). At the top of the function
block you can see that there are 2 count inputs.
One for counting up and one for counting down.

WORKING:
 Each pulse on the count input (CU) will increase the
current counter value (CV) by 1. And each pulse on the
count input (CD) will decrement current counter value (CV)
by 1.
 When CV is greater than or equal to the counter limit (PV)
the output (QU) is set. When CV is less than or equal to 0
the output (QD) is set.
 A pulse on the reset input (R) will reset the value of CV to 0.
A pulse on the load input (LD) will assign the value of
counter limit (PV) to CV.
Coils
 Each Coil is tied to a specific Bit of data. Here are the
standard Coil Types and what they to the specified Bit.
 Out: If the Coil is powered, the bit is assigned a 1. If not,
it’s assigned a 0.
 Set: If the Coil is powered, the bit is assigned a 1. If not,
the value remains whatever it was.
 Reset: If a Coil is powered, the bit is assigned a 0. If not,
the value remains whatever it was.
 Contacts and coils are often associated with the physical
Inputs & Outputs on the PLC.
 If a contact is tied to an Input, then when the power at the
input changes it’s contact value in the Ladder Logic Will
Change. If a coil is tied to an output and the coil changes its
value, then the voltage (or contact state) at the output will
change.
 INSTRUCTION IN PLC
 Instruction List (IL) is a low level textual language used in
PLC system, which has a structure similar to a simple
machine assembler.
 An instructions list provides programs with each instruction
on a new line as a sequence of instructions. Each
instruction is made up of an operator followed by one or
more operands, that is, the operator’s subjects.
LOGIC GATES WITH PLC
 LATCHING IN PLC
 The latching is used where the output must be activated
even after the entry ceases.
 Latching is widely used with start-ups so that the initial
switch on of an application becomes latched on.
 SEQUENCE IN PLC
 Programming a Sequence in Ladder Logic on a PLC is an
advanced skill. It’s a technique which utilizes SQI and SQO
instructions in order to create a sequence of events which is
based on specific steps & allows the PLC to follow a
prescribed sequence of events.
 Although the sequence isn’t something you’d expect to use
on a regular basis, it’s an advanced technique which shines
in specific applications.
 USING MEMORY BIT IN PLC

 Everything in the programmable logic controller actually

boils down to bits in the memory.
 For using memory bit in a network we firstly have to turn on
the memory bit by a normally open switch.
 The memory bit will hold the output until the memory bit is
turned off by an another normally closed switch.
 By the use of memory bit the complicated circuits of
sequence can be made easier.
 USE OF TIMERS IN PLC
 A timer is a PLC instruction measuring the amount of time
elapsed following an event.

 Timer instructions come in two basic types: on-delay timers

and off-delay timers.

 Both “on-delay” and “off-delay” timer instructions have

single inputs triggering the timed function.

 The accuracy and repeatability of the timer are extremely

high because the PLC processor generates delays.

 A timer starts counting at time-based intervals and

continues until the accumulated value equals the pre-set
value. When the accumulated value is equal to the pre-set
time, the output will be energized.

SENSORS
 Sensors allow a PLC to detect the state of a process. Logical
sensors can only detect a state that is either true or false.
For ex:
 Inductive proximity- is a metal object.
 Capacitive proximity- is a dielectric object.
 Optical presence- is an object breaking a light beam.
 Mechanical contact- is an object touching a switch.

TYPES OF SENSORS
 OPTICAL SENSORS
 CAPACITIVE SENSORS
 INDUCTIVE SENSORS
 ULTRASONIC SENSORS
 OPTICAL SENSOR
 Optical sensors require both a light source (emitter) and
detector.
 Emitters will produce light beams in the visible and
invisible spectrums using LEDs and laser diodes.
 Detectors are typically built with photodiodes or
phototransistors.
 The emitter and detector are positioned so that an object
will block or reflect a beam when present.

CAPACITIVE SENSORS
 Capacitive sensors are able to detect most materials at
distances up to a few centimetre.
 Recall the basic relationship for capacitance.
 INDUCTIVE SENSOR
 Inductive sensors use currents induced by magnetic fields
to detect nearby metal objects.
 The inductive sensor uses a coil (an inductor) to generate a
high frequency magnetic field as shown in.
 These sensors will detect any metals, when detecting
multiple types of metal multiple sensors are often used.
 ACTUATORS

 Actuators are used to convert electrical energy into some

form of mechanical motion.

Parts of actuators

 Solenoid: Solenoids act as electric to mechanical energy

converters, taking an electrical signal and converting it to
work.

 Valves: The flow of fluids and air can be controlled with

solenoid controlled valves.

 Cylinders: A cylinder uses pressurized fluid or air to create

a linear force/motion.

 Motors: these are used to convert the electrical energy into

mechanical energy.
TYPES OF ACTUATORS
 Hydraulic actuators:
 Hydraulics use incompressible fluids to supply very large
forces at slower speeds and limited ranges of motion.

 Pneumatic actuators:
 It converts energy by compressed air at high pressure into
either linear or rotator motion.
 Electric actuator: -
 It is powered by motor that convert electrical energy
into mechanical energy.
 The electrical energy is used to actuate equipment
such as multi turn valve.

 Mechanical actuator: -
 It functioned by converting rotatory motion into linear
motion to execute movement.
 Ex: - rail, gear system, pulley chain.