Industrial Programmable Logic

Controllers (PLCs)

Eng. R. L. Nkumbwa
Copperbelt University
School of Technology
2010
 Programmable Logic Controllers
(PLC’s)

 A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a

special purpose computer aimed at implementing
control solutions.
 Historically PLC’s have been used mainly for on-
off or logic type applications.
 However, modern PLC’s have become
increasingly sophisticated and can now cover
quite complex control tasks.
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 Programmable Logic Controllers

 These notes emphasize the switching capability

of a PLC. However, the reader is urged to think
of the dynamics of the underlying system.
 For example, we recently heard of a seemingly
straightforward application of a PLC to a
reservoir level control problem.
 The algorithm had many features but in essence
conformed to the rule that if the level was too low
then the pumping rate should be increased.
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 Programmable Logic Controllers

 This can be seen as an approximate form of integral

control.
 However, pure integral control when applied to a tank
(which is also an integrator) will lead to self sustained
oscillations.
 The reader is encouraged to verify this by drawing a root
locus plot for the closed loop poles.
 The moral of this story is that when implementing a
controller in a PLC one needs to consider the combined
dynamics of the control law and system.
 In this way a PLC is no different from any other form of
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 Industrial Robustness of PLC’s

 If you have ever had a personal computer lock-

up or reset in the middle of something important
you will appreciate that a similar failure in a large
industrial application would have severe
consequences.
 A PLC is simply an industrial computer designed
to be durable enough to withstand the rigors of
industrial applications.

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 Industrial Robustness of PLC’s

 It is common in the mining industry to have

PLC’s on large mobile equipment to monitor and
control everything from lights to large electrical
drives.
 The vibration and operating temperature of this
environment require the use of specialized
control equipment such as PLC’s.

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 Some Physical Tolerances of leading
PLC brands

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 Typical Areas of Application

 For past 30 years PLC’s have been in the first

level of control because of their ability to run
uninterrupted for extended periods of time
(usually measured in months or even years).
 The PLC layer in industrial applications is shown
in figure below

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 Control hierarchy of PLC’s

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 Ladder Logic

 The remained of this chapter will look at Ladder

Logic, which is the most common programming
structure used in PLC’s.
 Several examples of common Ladder Logic
programs will be demonstrated to show the
simple structure of this coding style.

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 Relay Ladder Logic

 Ladder logic is possibly the simplest

programming language.
 The principle behind the language is illustrated
by a simple electrical relay. (Electrical relay logic
preceded PLC’s as initially all logic was
implemented in hard wired panels using actual
relays, timer, Counters etc.)

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 Simple Relay Circuit

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 Circuit representation in Ladder Logic

 The above circuit is represented in Ladder

logic as shown in figure below (only the low
voltage circuit is used in ladder logic
diagrams):

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 Boolean Logic

 The above diagram can be expressed in Boolean

logic “Motor Coil = Switch”, ie if the Switch is on
the Motor coil is energized and Motor is
activated.
 All ladder logic takes the form of that shown in
Figure above.
 Thus it connects the positive and neutral rail
representing positive and negative power supply
to the relay.
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 Ladder Logic Instructions

 The three most common instructions in

ladder logic are:

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 PLC Switching

 The majority of simple PLC switching tasks can

be implemented using these simple instructions.
 However there exists a set of 60 to 100 individual
instructions such as those above which form the
complete PLC language.
 Other functions vary from simple timers and
counters to more sophisticated control functions
such as PID controllers and advanced arithmetic
functions.
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 Multi Input/Output Rungs

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 Multi Input/Output Rungs

 Each of the inputs in series such as ‘S2’ and ‘S3’

are equivalent to the Boolean “AND”{.} statement
while a “Bridge” in a rung is seen as an “OR”{+}
statement.
 In the case shown in Figure above the Boolean
expression for the Coil is:

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 Multi Output Rungs

 It is also possible to have multi output rungs

provided the OTE instructions are never placed
is series, they must always be in parallel and in
contact with the Neutral (right) rail, as shown in
figure below. (While multi output rungs are
necessary in some cases, it is often beneficial to
divide the rung into several smaller rungs for the
purpose of program clarity)

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 Multi Output Rungs

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 Start-Stop Rung

 Any large rung can always be broken down into simple

Boolean expressions such as for the simple rungs shown
above.
 Just as common electrical relays have auxiliary outputs,
which are used for feedback and indication, a similar
strategy is used in ladder logic.
 To demonstrate this point a simple START/STOP rung is
examined.
 Two Push Buttons (PB) are used for the ‘start’ and ‘stop’
inputs (Push buttons return a High or Low signal to the
PLC only for the duration during which the button is held
21 down), Consider the logic shown inEng.
Figure below.
R. L. Nkumbwa @ CBU 2010
 Use of Auxiliary Output

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 Push Button Example
 In this case the push buttons are “normally open” i.e. they
return a low signal in their normal position and a high
signal when pressed.
 Initially assume the Coil output is off, and the Push
Buttons (PB) not activated so they are also off.
 When the ‘Start PB’ is pressed the top path through the
rung is satisfied with start = 1and stop = 0 so the coil is
turned ON.
 Note this also satisfies the bottom path through the rung
on the next scan since coil = 1 and stop = 0.
 When the start button is released the top path through
the rung becomes false but the rung is still satisfied by
the bottom path, ie the coil remains on after the start PB
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 Push Button Example

 Pressing the ‘stop’ button (stop =1) breaks the

rung so the coil is turned OFF and remains off
after the stop button is released.

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 Other PLC Programming languages

 While Ladder logic is the most common form of

PLC language it is worth noting that other
languages do exist which where developed in
conjunction with Relay Ladder Logic.

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 Other Languages
 Blocks are built from small ladder logic subroutines and used
through the code as user defined ladder logic instructions, the
advantages of this approach is the reduction of repetitive ladder logic
code.
 Sequential Function Chart (SFC) programming is similar to
programming by computer flow chart. In SFC the program advances
step by step through various blocks (where action happens such as
a motor is started).
 Transition conditions determine when the program advances from
one block to another.
 Both the action blocks and the transition conditions are created using
ladder diagrams.
 Structured text, uses simple instructions common to medium level
programming languages: If , While, Then etc.
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 Other Languages

 Note: Some programming packages allow the

user to switch between Relay Ladder Logic and
Structured text representations of the code.

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 PLC Modules
 The modular nature of PLC components makes the
design, instillation and maintenance of the first level of
control much simpler.
 Similar to the peripheral devices, which can be obtained
for a personal computer, there are literally thousands of
interface modules supported by PLC’s.
 While these modules may be numerous they all have the
same function, obtaining or delivering control signals and
information between the measurement level and the
operator interface level.
 The modular nature is possibly the greatest strength of
PLC’s and several common modules will be described
below.
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 Digital Inputs/Outputs (I/O)

 By far the most common industrial signals used in PLC’s

are simple digital control signals.
 Referred to as Digital I/O (Digital input/output), they can
be measured in there thousands for substantial industrial
plants.
 They are used to measure an amazing verity of events.
 The most common digital signal encountered is a simple
switch, A switch is nothing more than an electrical switch
used to indicate some physical position.

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 Digital Inputs/Outputs (I/O)

 Digital I/O signals come in many forms from 12

Volt DC to 240 Volt AC, but the most common
industrial signals are 24Volt DC and 120V AC.
 There are Digital I/O modules to measure all of
these signals, an extra variation is the number of
signals per module ranging from 8, 16 and 32
etc.
 Most digital modules have electrical protection
usually in the form of optocoupling to prevent
damage to the PLC from standard electrical
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 Analogue Inputs/Outputs (I/O)

 Analogue signals enter and leave the PLC in

voltage and current form, The resolution of most
analogue signals is between 11 and 16 bits.
 While voltage is commonly used in practice it can
be sensitive to noise (induced voltages in
electrical equipment rooms can be substantial)
This makes current control the superior choice.
 The most common analogue signals appear in
the form of a 4-20mA current signal, i.e.
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 Analogue Inputs/Outputs (I/O)

– A signal of 4.0mA equates to zero,

– A signal of 20mA equates to 2048 for an 11 bit input,
 The reason for the 4.0mA starting point is a fail-
safe feature, if the instrument fails or the signal
cable is damaged the current falls to zero and
the PLC can alarm the operating system of the
failure immediately.
 This fail-safe feature is not possible for voltage
signals which pass through zero volts.
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 Other interface modules

 Digital I/O and Analogue I/O signals comprise the

vast majority of PLC signals.
 However, not all devices can be controlled by
these simple signals and it is often required that
PLC’s communicate to foreign instruments using
many different communications protocols,
 Again in most instances there is simply a module
predesigned to make this interface possible.
 Some examples include RS232, RS485, DH485,
DH+, Modbus, Ethernet etc.
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 Memory
(Addressing , Internal Registers)

 The memory in PLC’s needs to be predefined by

the programmer, similar to defining variables in
standard programming.
 The memory is divided into data files, each data
file has a unique number and a character prefix
which refers to the type of data.
 For example, in the Allen Bradley PLC-5
system, we have;
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 Allen Bradley PLC-5 System

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 Allen Bradley PLC-5 System

 The ASCII character (or characters) denotes the data

area type. Other types of defined words include T-timers,
C-counters and S-status registers etc.
 Note that the Output and Input numbers are dropped
from file 0 and 1 respectively, this is because these files
are not programmable.
 Status file 2 (S2:##) is also fixed within Allen Bradley
PLC’s. (Status bits include such information as arithmetic
overflow warnings, communication status and processor
time and dates etc)
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 Allen Bradley PLC-5 System

 The internal data areas of Integers and Floating

point addresses simply point to a linear memory
region.
 However the Input and Output address actually
correspond to a physical address. For example
I:12/03 has the format, I:{Rack address}{slot
number}/{Input number}.
 Physically this is the 3rd input on the 2nd slot in
the 1st Rack.
 This input is show below in figure,
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 Physical I/O Addressing

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 Physical I/O Addressing

 Note: PLC’s usually start counting from zero and

use the octal counting system. ie an eight slot
rack will have slots numbered from 0 to 7.
 This is the case for racks, slots and input
numbers.
 So the first possible input would be Rack 0, slot 1
input 0 (Slot 0 in Rack 0 is not available for
inputs since it is always reserved for the Central
Processing Unit, CPU)
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 Addressing Format

 The addressing format has been demonstrated

here because in writing a PLC program the
address is used by the PLC in the ladder logic.
 For example, if in the Start /Stop logic of figure
(6) the Start PB = I:13/04 and Stop PB = I:13/05
and the output Coil = O:12/03 then the ladder
logic would look more like figure below

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 Start/Stop Addressing Example

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 PLC Programming Architecture

 A PLC program can be divided into many small

subroutines. In this respect PLC’s replace function and
procedures with subroutines.
 Each subroutine is executed from top to bottom in a
predetermined order.
 Once all the subroutines have been scanned it simply
begins again with the first subroutine.
 The nature of subroutines makes a modular programming
structure possible, It is always beneficial to group
segments of code which serve similar purposes.
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 PLC Programming Architecture

 For example a program may be divided in the

following way:
– Subroutine U:20 – Pumps sequencing logic file.
– Subroutine U:21 – Pump No.1 alarming and drive file.
– Subroutine U:22 – Pump No.2 alarming and drive file.
– Subroutine U;23 – Pump No.3 alarming and drive file.

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 PLC Programming Architecture

 Here subroutine 20 controls the sequencing of

21,22 and 23 while the drive files are virtually
identical for each pump by starting and stopping
the pump while reporting alarms and the healthy
status to file 20.
 Fault finding problems in the code is greatly
simplified when all the code for a faulty device is
listed in a single subroutine.

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 PLC Programming Architecture

 The development of a plant wide PLC standard is an

essential step in automating a large control system.
 The benefits are twofold, if the programming standard is
well understood many code developers can work on the
code producing a uniform control system.
 The second advantage is that for anyone not involved in
the code production only needs to learn one standard to
have a good understanding of the program structure of all
the plants PLC’s.

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 Commercially Available PLC’s

 The next slides give details of some commercial

available PLC’s.
 The purpose of this is to show the variety of
PLC’s available on the market.

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 Allen-Bradley PLC’s

 Below are AB Plcs

 Note that AB is part of the Rockwell
Automation, a global leading Automation
giant.

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 Siemens Simatic PLC’s

 Below are Siemens Simantic PLCs

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 Modicon TSX PLC’s

 See Modicon TSX PLC below

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 Other PLC Terminology
 On-line: Refers to the program code currently in the PLC memory.
 Off-line: Refers to the copy of the program code stored on the
programming computer.
 Up-Load: Refers to the act of copying the current On-line code from
the PLC to the programming computer . (Note the previous code on
the programming computer is lost during this transfer if a copy is not
made)
 Down-Load: Refers to the act of copying the code from the
programming computer into the PLC’s memory. (note the previous
PLC code is lost during this transfer).
 Note: It is important to realize that changing the On-line program will
not change the Off-line program on the programming computer.
Invariably at the end of any edit there must follow an Up-load or
Down-Load to make the Online and Off-line programs the same.
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 Other PLC Terminology

 Run Mode: The PLC actively scanning the code and

driving outputs.
 Program Mode: The PLC is not being scanned (All
outputs disabled)
 Remote Mode: programming computer can change
the PLC between Run and Program.
 Note: There is a physical key on the front of each
PLC processor module, which allows the PLC to be
switched between Run, Remote and Program Mode.

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 Programming Procedure

 PLC’s are very versatile in the respect that

programming changes can be made on-line while
the processor is in Run Mode.
 This is equivalent to making changes in a
compiled ‘C’ program while it is being executed.
 To introduce programming edits into the existing
code while in Run Mode the following procedure
is followed.
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 Programming Procedure
 Insert edit rungs into the On-line PLC code (as many changes as
required). These edits are effectively invisible to the processor during
this stage.
 Once all edit rungs are entered switch the processor to TEST, during
TEST mode any new inserted code is allowed to be scanned along
with existing code, if any code is marked for deletion this code is
prevented from being scanned at this stage.
 Once you are confident that the edit rungs are correct Assemble the
code which permanently activates new code and permanently
removes any code marked for deletion.

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 Programming Example:
Simple start/stop ladder logic.

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 Programming Example:
Simple start/stop ladder logic.

 This is as it would appear in a windows

based programming package.
 Text in the Yellow and Green box’s is the
Address Description and Address Symbol
respectively.
 The symbols often correspond to SCADA
(System Control and Data Acquisition)
software tags.
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 Alternative Start/Stop using
Latch and Unlatch instructions.

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 References

 Garry Johnston (2010),University of Newcastle,

Australia

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