PLC Applications

Hello friends! Kindly list the various applications of PLC's in the fields of Mechanical Engg.,Electrical & Electronics Engg. &Textile Industries

Hello stranger.

Kindly list your reasons for wanting this classified information.

programmable logic controollers

Thank you Allen for your reply. I need this data for presenting a project proposal to a funding agency,namely AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education)in order to equip the Electronics Lab of my Insitute--R.Muthamilarasi,Lecturer/EEE Dept.,Thiagarajar Polytechnic College,Salem,Pin:636405

It's difficult to know how to respond.

On one hand, I want to see you succeed in getting any equipment you need to teach with.

On the other hand, your request for information is so broad-based and open, and your apparent understanding of what PLCs are and do so limited, that I'm not sure I can give a meaningful answer.

PLCs are everything, and nothing, to those areas you mentioned.

What PLCs do is CONTROL. They make things happen the way you want them to happen. Thus, they can be INTEGRATED into those areas, but they don't have to be.

Take mechanical engineering. A mechanical engineer can design a machine to work, with all the moving parts integrated mechanically to provide the proper feedback and control (think: internal combustion engine).

But a similarly functional machine could be designed (from a mechanical) standpoint to have a PLC control things instead (Think: Fly-by-wire in large modern airplanes - in the old days, turning the wheel controlled levers which moved the flaps. Later, turning the wheel caused hydraulic valves to open, controlling the flaps. Now turning the wheel sends an electrical signal to a computer (=~PLC) which controls the flaps).

Similarly, while a PLC is used to electrically control a modern factory, it is neither a necessity, nor a luxury. And there are many principles that an engineering student needs to understand first and foremost before being introduced to PLCs. Big concepts like: Control. Feedback. Usability (both from an operator and from a maintenance perspective).

And then there's the whole side of electical engineering (and not just electronics) that's never even heard of a PLC.

Same with textiles. PLCs can be used to make textiles. Or not. (and from what I've heard, most textile mills AREN'T PLC controlled).

I'm sorry I can't more for you. Perhaps others can give you better advice.

I mean no disrespect to Allen or anyone else that might respond to this question, but;

If there is money available such that you can justify your grant application by citing the opinions of anonymous respondents to a question posted on an internet bulletin board;

Where do I apply for some of that money???

Seriously, why don't you poll the facilities managers or plant engineers of the companies that hire your graduates? For information on the applications of PLCs in the manufacture of textiles, ask the plant engineer or the maintenance manager of a textile plant.

Is the function of your lab to teach your students how to apply and program PLCs? If so, I hope you have a lab instructor who has some real-world experience with them. Such a person would also be an excellent source for the information you're seeking.

Thank you very much for the information.Contact you through this forum after two weeks-good bye

Kindly define briefly what SCADA is to do for a PLC System

Define SCADA for me please muthamilarasi

Wow... that was a pretty damned short two weeks!

muthamilarasi,

SCADA is an acronym meaning Supervision, Control And Data Acquisition. It is a means to replace the old control board (with knobs, meters, displays and so on) with a computer based graphical representation of it.
The different parts of SCADA can be defined as follows:

• Supervision: by means of an animated graphical representation of the process you can get an idea about the state the process is in. The animation is based upon the variables, commonly named tags, derived from the controling equipment, e.g. PLC. The direction of the data is from controlling device to SCADA software.
• Control: the components are the same as with supervision. You have a graphical representation upon which you can interact with the controlling device. The direction is however turned around. The data goes from the SCADA software to the controlling device.
• Data Acquisition: since the software has to collect data in order to animate the graphics in the supervision part, this data can be made also available to display it over a range of time. Mostly this is called trending. Most SCADA packages give you the possibility to display the collected data in different ways. As an example: in Citect you can display SPC cards based on information gathered from the PLC.

To find out some of the possibilities of Citect, go to the Citect website. There you can download case studies and a demo version of the software. Or you could go to the Siemens website to get info about WinCC, Wonderware offers the InTouch package and so on. You could also search this website to find info about other SCADA packages.

Kind regards,

Jean Pierre Vandecandelaere
Instructor PLC - SCADA - Basic ICT
VDAB Bruges
Belgium
VDAB website http://vdab.be/en/ (english version - also available in Dutch, German and French)
My personal website http://plc.freehosting.net (sorry, Dutch only for the moment)

I mosly makes mine make the crismas lights go on an off.

should have known that noone would wait for the poster to define SCADA, the definition tells what it does for plc's