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Do PLCs Eliminate Need for a DCS?
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
In the past it was fairly easy to determine whether a PLC or a DCS was right for an application but in recent years this has become more difficult. It is argued that more powerful PLC products coupled with new software tools provide an integrated process control system rivaling a distributed control system (DCS) for process control applications.
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Automation Insights Network
By Rick Zabel, Publisher
Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.
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ISA - Change the name to represent the industry
By Rick Zabel, Automation.com
The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!
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State of Manufacturing & Automation in the U.S. Looks Good
Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.
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Don’t Rip Out Your Old Automation Just Yet
Automation World, July 2008
By James R. Koelsch
Tearing everything out and starting again from scratch is not always an option. Some manufacturers are devising strategies for upgrading their installed automation over time in an orderly way. One example involves PACs.
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What Does an Automation Computer Look Like?
By Mike Berryman, Advantech
This is the age of embedded computing. From wristwatches to cell phones to industrial process control devices, computers control everything. But these devices do not look like computers. So what does an automation computer look like?
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Will This Machine Work?
Control Design, June 2008
By Dan Hebert
There are many different ways to test and verify that your machine and its automation system will perform as intended prior to final fabrication, installation and commissioning. Includes examples of PC, PLC and PAC-based controls.
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Don't judge a supplier by its name
By Frank Hurtte, Contributing Author.
For those of us who live and breathe the rarified vapors of technology based automation, it's pretty hard to fathom how life existed without electronic automation. Yet, it has been a short 30 years since the venerable PLC became anything more than a novelty outside of the Big 3 in Detroit. Sometime in the late 1970s, microprocessors changed our lives forever. Since those early days, the power of these tiny chips forever changed the way we think about manufacturing.
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Custom Controls Survey - Complimentary assessment, tips and tricks
We are conducting a brief survey on custom controls — that is, board-level controllers used in place of standard PLCs or process controls. If you use custom controls in your automation applications, please take a minute to tell us why you use them and what challenges you face. You may be eligible to receive a complimentary controls assessment, plus tips and tricks on how to lower your control costs.
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Regional Manufacturing Expos Prove Most Valuable
By Thomas R. Cutler
Deciding which conferences, webinars, and expos are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend often feels like a dangerous yellow brick road, never knowing quite what to expect.
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ABB is powered up and running at high efficiency!
By Bill Lydon
The products and services shown at ABB Automation World in Houston, Texas along with the enthusiasm of the ABB employees and users would seem to explain why the company’s 1st quarter 2008 earnings beat investment analysts’ consensus by over 40%. The three-day trade show and conference ran from April 29 through May 1 in Houston, Texas. There was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm at the event which showcased ABB products, ABB services, partner products, and over 300 workshops/training sessions.
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PLCs and DCSs Converge
Control Engineering, May 2008
By Bob Nelson and Todd Stauffer, Siemens Energy & Automation
The evolution of PLC, DCS and hybrid control technologies makes it more challenging than ever for process manufacturers to select the best technology for their application. The answers to questions in seven areas can help guide you to the right choice.
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What's in a name?
by Jeff Payne, AutomationDirect
PLC, DCS and PAC are a few acronyms used to describe what originally replaced relays in the late 1960s. So, what are the differences and why do we need to call them by so many different names?
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Moving toward PACs
Plant Engineering, April 2008
By Matt Mekschun, Schneider Electric
The continued trend of smaller, more powerful computing technology has not been lost on the automation industry. Emerging from this trend is the concept of the programmable automation controller. The PAC blurs the traditional PC vs. PLC control argument.
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PAC attack
Intech, April 2008
By Kelly Downey and Jean Femia
PACs on the market today have varying capabilities. When you are choosing a PAC for an application, there are considerations to keep in mind from a hardware and software perspective.
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XML Control Logic Standard Gains Acceptance as Digital Factory Interface
By Bill Lydon, Managing Director, PLCopen North America
Open non-proprietary interface allows users to pick the best of breed production hardware and software including PLC, PAC, PLM, modeling, and simulation software to make virtual design and production simulation a reality.
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The Culinary Art of Mechatronics
Control Engineering, March 2008
By C.G. Masi
Cooking up good mechatronic systems takes the right hardware and software. For mechatronics, software includes the operating system (OS), application programs, and instrument drivers.
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Building block diagrams
Control Engineering, March 2008
By C.G. Masi
Block-diagram visualization allows system engineers to separate needs analysis from system design, and start system-level design before finishing component-level designs.
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PACs Gain Momentum
Automation World, February 2008
By Wes Iversen
While not everyone likes the name, a new generation of programmable automation controllers that feature multi-domain control functionality are helping to reduce costs for a growing number of manufacturers.
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Distributed Control Systems Vendors Respond to PAC Questions
Automation World, February 2008
By Wes Iversen
Are PACs displacing DCSes? Here’s what four DCS vendors have to say about that.
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Controllers evolve as information needs grow
Control Engineering, February 2008
By Lee Lane, Rockwell Automation
Controllers have evolved over the years from relay boards that automate a machine to the tag-enabled multidisciplined controllers today. As an information-enabled controller, PACs will continue to evolve along with the information systems executives find useful.
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A Better View of the Plant
Automation World, January 2008
By Rob Spiegel
New HMI tools are taking data from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and displaying it throughout the enterprise via Web browsers. Likewise, HMI systems are sending intelligible information from the enterprise down to the shop floor.
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Software for Programmable Automation Controllers
If you’re looking at PACs for your monitoring, automation, and data acquisition applications, you may be wondering how PACs are programmed. This white paper explores some of the most important features of software for PACs.
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Signal Conditioning for PC-Based Control
Control Engineering, January 2008
By C.G. Masi
Control-system designers need to pay extra attention to signal conditioning issues when using PC-based controllers. PACs and PLCs don’t have the same problems.
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New Guises, Protections for Industrial PCs
Control, January 2008
By Jim Montague
Reports of the demise of the industrial computer have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, recent technical advances are making the desktop PC-in-a-box and many of its traditional capabilities unrecognizable. However, there remain many applications in which operators need screen-based HMIs on or close to machines, production lines or other systems.
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PACs for Communications and Data Handling
Control, January 2008
By Dan Hebert
Many process control applications require much more than just real-time control, and extensive communications and data handling can tax the functionality of PLCs. In these instances, a programmable automation controller (PAC) can be a good fit. Most PACs are derived from the PC world; hence their relative strength when it comes to communications and data handling.
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When is a PLC like a typewriter?
Control Engineering, December 2007
By Thomas R. Kurfess
The PLC vs PAC argument, from a different perspective.
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Backup for Critical Processes
Control Engineering, September 2007
By Stephen Arnold, Telemecanique
While it might not be practical for end users to implement a hot standby solution with a DCS, many end users and system integrators are now learning that PLC hot standby solutions can offer high availability in a more cost effective hardware and software combination.
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Hybrid control identity crisis
InTech, September 2007
By Samuel Herb, JAOMAD Consultancy
What’s in a name? What’s the difference between DCS, PLC and PAC? With hybrid controllers combining functions of DCSs, PLCs, and RTUs, confusion reigns. Author tries to sort it out.
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Logic and I/O
Motion System Design, September 2007
Interviews with experts from Opto 22, Wago, Phoenix Contact and Rockwell Automation on control system options and processing machine commands and feedback signals. It’s PC vs PLC vs PAC vs motion controllers.
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Benefits of Fuzzy Logic for Advanced Process Control
By Jeffrey Shearer, Rockwell Automation
White paper provides best practices for designing with fuzzy control and examines its benefits compared to conventional control methods. In addition, the paper outlines how to develop fuzzy logic algorithms for the Allen-Bradley Logix family of programmable automation controllers.
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How to connect a Siemens PLC to USB
A SSW5/USB converter cable from Systeme Helmholz can be used to connect a Simatic S5 CPU to a PC with a USB interface. Here’s how.
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Juggling many functions
Motion System Design, July 2007
By Fabio Malaspina, Rockwell Automation
Programmable automation controls (PACs) consolidate discrete, motion, drives and safety control in a single environment, making changeovers easier and significantly faster.
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The Changing Shape Of Embedded Automation
The Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2007
By Marcus Hoffmann and Jürgen Teufel, Siemens Automation and Drives
PC-based controllers and classic PLCs currently exist side by side. However, fast network connections and web services are giving rise to a new breed of controller. With the classic stability of a PLC and the open market of conventional PC platform, it promises to win applications from both, particularly those with combinations of HMI and motion control.
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What is a Programmable Automation Controller (PAC)?
The ARC Advisory Group is generally recognized as the originator of the term "Programmable Automation Controller" (PAC). It was first coined in 2001 as a way to help automation hardware users better define their application needs and to give automation hardware vendors a term to more clearly communicate the capabilities of their products. Recently many vendors have begun classifying their newest or high-end systems as PACs, while others have come to use the term interchangeably with the term PLC. Despite these inconsistencies, PACs have a definite feature set, and their similarities to PLCs are as numerous as their differences.
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