Rockwell - Phases and Batch

Does anyone have a guide for thouse Rockwell's feature? Rockswell's guides for Batch and Phases aren't very good. I would like something more didactic

Foundations of Modular Programming

Helps if you also education yourself of ISA-88

I already read this documment. I would like examples of how to build a phase managem programme!

Try the Rockwell Sample Code library, I searched for Phase Management and got this:

http://search.rockwellautomation.co...e:D:L:d1&wc=200&wc_mc=1&ud=1&filter=0&q=phase manager

The phase manager in ControlLogix is pretty straightforward. It merely controls the phase's states -- Idle, Running, Holding, Held, etc. It allows the creation of a single routine of each of the "active" states (Running, Holding, Restarting, Aborting), as well as a "Prestate" routine which is always executed. Only one "active" routine is enabled at a time (depending on the phases's state), saving on scan time and allowing for potential multiple destructive bits. While programming them in SFCs is popular (because of how S88 is usually presented), they can be in any 61131-3 language.

There are special commands (PCMD, PSC) to allow the PLC (and by extension, an HMI or Batch engine) to start phases, and let the Phase Manager know when phases are complete.

That's all there is to phase manager. It isn't very hard. Once, when I upgraded to an L8x processor and phase manager wasn't supported yet, I wrote my own with 10 lines of code in an AOI, and some common copy-paste code. PSC commands became OTE(PSC_Running); that sort of thing.

You don't need to use Phase Manager, it just makes things easier if you do.


As for "Batch" -- well, that's a whole different can of worms. Rockwell has two canned solutions, FT Batch (which natively works with Phase Manager), but is pricy. They also have "LBSM" -- Logic Batch & Sequence Manager -- which is a PlantPAx add-in, which can be used to create simple recipes.

Of course, you don't have to use Rockwell batch products to use it's phase manager: I've built phase-logic-interface AOIs / coding practices to interface with Wonderware's InBatch and Fix's IBatch. I've also written my own batch engines in the PLC. Which way you want to go depends on how complex the system is; how much variability you have in recipes and the equipment, and all the other things that the S88 standard discusses.

No one can tell you "how to build a phase manager program" -- because everything depends on your physical and process models (in S88 parlance). "All" you do is create a program of an "Equipment Phase" type, and create at least a "Running" routine with whatever logic needs to happen when the phase is running and that's it. You might want to add a PSC() instruction at the end, if you have some sort of sequencer logic in there. Otherwise (by default, but configurable) the Phase Manager will assume the state is complete on one scan. Other than that, it's no different from any other PLC program: it's up to you to define how things work.

Good luck.

Thank you Aardwizz for the informations! Phase programming depends what I need to do with PLC... My problema for now is to connect Phases with Batch and I'am looking for examples to help me to undestand de process.

Which batch engine are you going to use? How to connect is related to how they talk. FactoryTalk Batch talks natively to the Phase Manager, so not much needs to be done.

InBatch, IBatch, and other 3rd party batch products each talk their own way.

IBatch will set a phase-specific (but not Phase Manager specific) integer tag to "10" (I think -- it's been a while) if it wants the phase to start , so you'd monitor that tag and if it equals '10' use a PCMD instruction to start the phase. "20" may mean "Hold", and so on. All of this can be wrapped in a nice PLI (Phase Logic Interface) AOI that includes everything but the PCMD instructions themselves.

InBatch sets different bits as to what it thinks the state of the tag should be, so you'd duplicate those states with various PCMD commands. But there are all sorts of different models to choose from, in terms of units and hold propagation, which can affect how you program your phases and their responses to the phase and unit bits. A different PLI AOI.

If you are making your own batch engine, then again you'll probably use PCMDs to start, hold, restart, abort and reset phases in however you create your own recipes.

Braic, A_G has some decent advice for you to get access to a technical write-up providing some information on PhaseManager and PXRQ instructions with FactoryTalk Batch.

Do you have a support agreement with Rockwell Technical Support? If so, please call the Rockwell Technical Support in your area. If outside the US, and they are not able to assist you, please ask that your support ticket be escalated to the USA Support group for batch and then onto Commercial Engineering. I will look out for your request in support, and contact you with a support engineer to provide the details that you need.