Is industry 4.0 helpful to promote the market development of intelligent operation control products

Source: China Automation Network

Introduction: the basic concept of "industry 4.0", that is, modular information physical system, which can realize real-time communication with each other while cooperating with operators, and make automatic judgment, so as to adjust the production process on demand.

"Industry 4.0" is a general term, which refers to the fourth generation of industrial revolution, commonly known as "production and manufacturing informatization" - it can also be understood as a combination of traditional automation and information technology.

The basic concept of "industry 4.0", i.e. modular information physical system, can realize real-time communication with each other while cooperating with operators, and make automatic judgment, so as to adjust the production process on demand.

Industry 4.0, information physics systems

In order to design an ideal new product, mechanical manufacturers need to consider the following points when selecting relevant operation control equipment:

Logical control can no longer meet the requirements

A few years ago, programmable logic controller (PLC) was still widely used in the industry to control machine equipment. PLC can not only process discrete input signals and discrete output signals, but also execute sequential programs. In general, PLC will be connected to an independent operation controller, and the controller will adjust and cooperate with the servo driver through the field bus. However, this method can not meet the needs of the industry. What digital manufacturing needs is a mechanical controller that can perform multiple complex tasks in parallel.

Therefore, this demand promotes the development of programmable automation controller (PAC). The modern PAC platform is an enabling technology, through which customers can manufacture the production equipment needed for "industry 4.0". This single hardware platform includes logic and process control, motion control, visualization, advanced programming language and software development tools across different disciplines, so as to solve interface problems and facilitate understanding of modular design principles.

Note: when selecting the next generation control platform, please confirm whether the selected platform meets the requirements of relevant industry standards (such as IEC61131-3 and PLCopen), so as to reduce the risk.

Industry 4.0, information physics systems

Connectivity is the key

In order to achieve higher flexibility and maximize the overall efficiency of the equipment, the production process needs to be adjusted automatically according to the change of demand. Therefore, it is not only necessary to install intelligent devices that can talk with each other in real time, but also need a controller platform as a central hub to realize seamless two-way communication from the enterprise network to each actuator.

In order to avoid potential bottlenecks, intelligent field devices supporting industrial Ethernet protocol should be selected to communicate with the control system. The programmable control system with integrated network publishing function helps to publish data anytime, anywhere, and facilitate remote maintenance when necessary.

Influence on the design of electrical control panel

Due to the need of precise position control in the automatic adjustment of manufacturing process, people tend to choose small batch size and large-scale on-demand production, so the use of servo drivers is growing. However, increasing the number of servo drives requires installing a larger electrical control cabinet, otherwise installation problems may increase.

The current solution is to use a servo drive system with a central power supply module to reduce the use of external components. The modern multi axis system is also developed with stacked double axis and three axis modules, which greatly reduces the size of the control panel. In addition, because the single core cable servo motor combines the position feedback signal into the power line of the motor, the cost of the cable is reduced by half compared with the previous one.