Development trends in the field of automation

my country's industrial enterprises will face the challenges of market and energy; clean production and environmental protection; high efficiency and standardization; responsibility and coordination in the next ten years. Energy conservation, environmental protection, safety, and efficiency are topics that every enterprise must face, and automation technology and these four goals are closely linked. This article will briefly describe the latest development trends in the field of automation today, so as to help our country Industrial development will build a broader platform for communication and communication.

    1. Information technology promotes automation

    It has become the consensus of the industry to transform the metallurgical industry with information technology, to promote automation with information technology, and to promote the realization of the four goals of energy saving, environmental protection, safety, and high efficiency. In today’s automation field, from the process site level to the factory (group) management level, the smooth and seamless flow of information can basically be realized through Ethernet. The so-called "modern integrated production process" is the combination of information technology, network technology and modern new technology. It is combined and applied to all stages of the enterprise product life cycle. Through the seamless integration of information, process optimization and resource optimization, the integration of logistics, information flow, and value flow can be realized to shorten the development cycle of new products of the enterprise (T), Improve quality (Q), reduce cost (C), improve service (S) and improve environment (E), thereby enhancing the enterprise's market resilience and competitiveness, and want to adapt to the development of a series of management software, such as ERP , MRP, MIS, PES, etc., and increasingly show its huge economic benefits.

    Under the pressure of increasing competition, some large domestic metallurgical groups are also closely following the trend of informatization and promoting the development of automation. For example, in recent years, a domestic metallurgical group has deployed automation control systems for its new metallurgical production lines. At the upper end of the field level and the process control level (PCS), the manufacturing execution system (MES) layer has been added, and ERP, namely enterprise resource planning and management, is being planned and operated. It includes production management systems, quality control systems, Procurement management system, warehouse management system, sales subsystem, equipment management system, financial management system, office automation management system and integrated management subsystem, etc.

    Nowadays, the combination of computer technology, network technology and advanced control technology is no longer at the theoretical and experimental stage. Advanced control algorithms such as model prediction, neuron and neural networks, fuzzy control, multi-variable control, self-adaptation and self-optimization have been put into practice and used in DCS, PLC and other controllers, and this trend is accelerating.

    Another hot spot in the combination of IT technology and automation is that public databases, local area networks, Internet, wireless technology and other penetration control systems flatten the control system and realize cross-platform and cross-regional control. The new automation concept of Siemens' TIA, the new concept of "Collaborate Automation", "Transparent Ready" and "Unity Automation Platform" launched by Schneider; and the fully integrated EtherNet/IP proposed by Rockwell, etc. The new concept of automation makes the automation control system more complete and perfect.

    2. Complementation and penetration of automation technology

    DCS, PLC, and IPC are the three pillars in the field of automatic control. They compete fiercely, but they learn from each other's strengths and infiltrate each other, thus forming a PLC/DCS hybrid system HCS with a hybrid control strategy. A consulting group treats them Call it PAC. For the typical process industry, it determines the dominant position of the switch logic control. Simultaneously, the processing of analog quantities is mostly simple display and setting, and the control loop is basically an uncomplicated single loop adjustment. These characteristics are suitable for HCS Applications. At present, Siemens, Schneider, Rockwell and other companies with PLC as the leading position in the market have launched PLC/DCS hybrid system HCS with hybrid control strategies, such as Siemens' PCS7, ABB's AC800F, 800M, Schneider's Modicon Quantum, Rockwell's ControlLogix, etc. , Has been promoted in the industry as a leading product, and has achieved good results.

    The main characteristics of the hybrid system HCS are: to build a public and integrated development environment, provide a common development platform, a common label and a single database to meet the needs of multi-domain automation system design and integration;

    At the same time, it adopts a modular hardware architecture that can be freely combined to reduce the overhead caused by system upgrades. It supports fieldbus international standards such as IEC61158 to achieve a highly distributed automation environment, and also supports the de facto industrial Ethernet standard, which can be easily integrated with the upper level ERP, MIS, MES. Some companies use Siemens’ PCS7 in their control systems, which is a big step forward compared to Siemens’ original PLC and step7 systems. The main reason is to improve the development environment and facilitate the integration of the group’s MIS and MES. It is very important to be a design institute and system integrator of system engineering.

    Third, the automation system pays more attention to function and information security

    Safe production has attracted more and more people's attention. Human life is above all else. It has become an important indicator to measure modern industry. It is more important for our country where safety accidents are frequent. The main safety considerations of the automation control system are: electrical safety, explosion-proof safety, information safety and functional safety. Information security refers to the security of the system due to information leakage, hacker intrusion, etc.; functional security refers to the possible dangers caused by the failure of the security functions performed by the control system. The international standards that have been issued one after another include IEC61508—functional safety standards for electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems, and IEC61511—functional safety standards for safety instrumented systems in the process industry. Generally, the overall safety level SIL is used to assess the degree of risk. There are 4 levels. The higher the safety level SIL, the lower the risk.

       In the field of automation, corresponding standard products have been introduced, such as Siemens’ fail-safe and fault-tolerant S7F/FH system, Rockwell’s Gruard PLC, etc. Some companies are equipped with dedicated safety modules and corresponding configuration software, and passive Maintenance and diagnosis have developed to preventive safety measures, and many safety protocols have been introduced in accordance with this, such as PROFIsafe, CIPsafety, etc.