Industrial Automation Mechanism

The use of control system or computers to control industrial process and industrial machinery is called industrial automation or numerical automation. In the mechanism the human labor is replaced by sophisticated computers. It is different from mechanization. In mechanization human operators run the machinery as per the requirements of the work. But in numerical automation most of the works are facilitated by the highly improved computers. The whole system and the processes of the industry are automated under the automated system. Industrial automation requires several automation tools. There are several automation tools that make industrial possible. These tools include Distributed control system, human machine interface, laboratory information management system, manufacturing executive system. In addition to it in manufacturing units some other tools applied are programmable logic controller, programmable automation controller, supervisory control and data acquisition, and simulation and field bus.

Industrial automation has got wide application in the today's economic world order. the automation engineers are playing a very important role in the maximizing the efficiency of industries. They create a complex system of human computer interface to facilitate a wide range of application. But industrial automation is not flawless. First, it makes the industry over dependent on the automation system which sometimes backfires. There is always a probability of affecting computers with a number of viruses turning the whole system in fiasco. The potential danger always looms large over the industries.

Social issues involved in the industrial automation have also wide ramifications. It raises many social issues which are very much relevant for the populous countries. Industrial automation affects employment to a great extent. It is a sheer myth that it leads to higher employment. The truth is that it affects unskilled labors most. There is no space for those who are unskilled. This is because automated industries require only skilled labors. But this unleashes a cathartic effect on the labor society. It forces more and more people to take up skilled jobs or makes them try for it. Nowadays the automation is very much advanced. It has replaced even many skilled jobs also. It is advancing rapidly throughout the world. In future it may hamper more and more skilled jobs.

In spite of all these repercussions there is a greater emphasis on the industrial automation. Primarily its main purpose was to maximize the production of the industry. Now the focus has been shifted to enhance the quality of the products which is the need of the hour in the present scenario. Industrial automation has made workforce more flexible and now it is quite feasible to switch over from one product to the other product in an automated system.

Advanced Automation Associates, one of the leading automation control service provider in USA. It provides HMI design and industrial automation.

All About Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

Many of you might be like me and when they first heard about a supervisory control and data acquisition or otherwise known as SCADA, you might not even know what that does or is. Those of you who work within factories probably know all about this, but for those who aren't as up to date on factory jobs, they might not know what this is all about. I know that I was clueless. For all you clueless people out there, let me help you learn about this thing that many are unfamiliar with.

Now, those who are familiar with a factory know that there have to be different systems that collect data. They call these a control system. What a supervisory control and data acquisition is just an industrial control system. There are many parts to these. When they work together, they are all there to collect data on how things are run. It is also normally run by a computer system.

There are three main types of SCADA. The first are industrial processes. Another one is infrastructure processes. Last, there are facility processes. They are a different control system for different parts of factories. Typically, a SCADA has main components. These also help to collect data. They call these subsystems and include:

• human-machine interface
• supervisory system
• remote terminal units
• programmable logic controller
• A communication infrastructure.

With these control systems, factories are run more economically efficiently. They don't have to hire as many people. The SCADA allows fewer people to monitor the productions at the factories. Most things that go wrong in the factories can now be taken care of by the computer technicians that these places hire. This way they are paying one person rather than a number of individuals. This is done through newer networking technology that almost all factories are going to. These systems are very up to date and very in depth as to what they do and how they work. This just gives those of you who don't exactly know about it a brief interdiction to this concept. So, if you are interested in how this works, there has been much written about it.

Sturat enjoys writing articles on topics like SCADA and what is SCADA.