What is PC-Based Automation?
PC-based automation has revolutionized the manufacturing industry and made it more efficient, productive, and faster. It involves combining the advantages of PC technology with the challenges of the industry.
Hence, plants with demanding requirements on processing speed, such as measurement and quality control systems, can now benefit from the faster computing power of PC technology and its openness.
Since these plants often operate in harsh industrial environments, the PC-based automation software must be designed after considering these conditions.
The new generation of engineers now sees PC technologies in almost every area of development right from smartphones to smart TVs and tablets to cloud computing. These developments in the commercial sector have also found their place in the manufacturing world in every phase.
Right from initial product design and fabrication to final product deployment, end of life, and recycling, PC technologies have shown engineers the potential of automation in all these phases.
Are PC-based automation solutions better than PLC solutions?
PLCs were initially designed for automation purposes, of course. But they have never been designed to meet the high-end and challenging requirements of today’s time. PCs have always been designed to perform complex tasks, including data storage, communication, computing, and more.
While PLCs have been in the existence for a very long time, are sequential, and operate based on the finite time, PC-based automation solutions allow you to apply interrupt-drive algorithms in real-time.
The best thing about PC-based automation is that its operation revolves around communicating information rather than controlling things. Since the information flow has become increasingly important in today’s industry, PC-based solutions have found a specific niche in their own right. Probably, this might be the reason why more and more plant operators need to use PCs as automation controllers.
The commercialization of digital technologies has developed the demand for visual and high-speed data. For such applications, PC-based automation software is more suitable. What’s more, even traditional PLC-based functionality, for instance, safety, can now be leveraged through PC-based solutions.
Thus, even if most engineers will prefer to use PLCs due to enhanced familiarity, the increasing importance of data, information exchange, and collaborative execution will make them go for PC-based automation. In many situations, both PLCs and PCs can work hand-in-hand for higher optimization based on requirements.
Which applications is PC-based automation best suited for?
Generally, PC-based automation is used in open-loop and closed-loop control in mechanical engineering, data processing and communication in the semiconductor and electronics industry, and intellection property protection in the emerging markets. Apart from this, the use of PC-based automation is becoming more common in a variety of industries, including:
Automotive: frequent changes in production, demand flexibility, data analysis for enhanced efficiency, control integration, and numerous safety standards
Oil and Gas: monitoring and diagnostics are often performed remotely and the cost of repair and re-commissioning is high
Food & Beverage: production lines operate consistently and strict regulations require extensive data management
Renewable Energy: the process must be closely monitored and assessed to reduce scrap rates
Machine Builders: require to maximize efficiency, provide cutting-edge performance, and need innovative solutions
To conclude, PC-based automation solutions are more flexible, scalable, open, and secure and offer higher productivity with minimum downtime.
