As anyone knows the word “best” is relative to the conditions where it is applied, which means that an application of the word “best” might be true in one case, but may not be true in another application. This idea of the “best” automation controller in your company operation is totally dependent on the needs and requirements of your automation. In fact determining what are the requirements of your automated application is the “best” starting point to decide which automation controller would be “best” in your company operation. You must end up matching up the requirements of your automation with the capabilities of the most applicable controller. The abilities of the automation controller must fill the needs of the automation in order for it to be the “best”.
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Any automation controller should include a broad-based and well accepted operating system that will allow the execution of any software that is needed to meet the needs of your automation. Controllers running concurrently or on a Microsoft-based network operating system will usually have the ability to run any industry standard software that can be used for manufacturing automation. This type of operating system will give a automation application the ability to be expanded as technology moves capability forward. Long-term maintenance and easy upgrade can be attained when employing this in the manufacturing configuration. Past these broad abilities the controller must be evaluated for some other very specific abilities that are applicable to different types of control.
An automation controller should include high performance ability which means high processing speed. Each controller is a computer that contains an area of temporary memory where programs are run. The speed at which the programs are run in this memory area is dependent on the clock rate of the processor. The higher the clock rate of the processor, the faster it can run programs. As technology has moved the clock rate of computers to faster speeds the cost of the processors in the computers has gone down. It has gotten cheaper to get a very fast processor in the computer that controls automation. You will need a high speed controller to manage more than one automated operation in your manufacturing processes.
Your computer processor should be substantial enough to last for an acceptable period of time before having to be replaced. This should period of time will have to be something that you decide. It should be long enough to get an acceptable return on the investment that you have to make for the controller. With the cost of processors decreasing over time, it should not be a very long time when the return on your investment has been realized. However, the controller should be able to continue working well past this time because the work it does is very acceptable in supporting your manufacturing operations.
The automation controller that is put into use in your manufacturing should give you the ability to use any one of several programming languages with effectiveness. The application programs that run will probably use graphical user interfaces to make the control of automation much easier. Having this type of user interfaces will make it much easier to train personnel that will be assigned to monitor operations. Languages that are used should lend themselves to building code modules that can be reused if needed. Libraries of code building blocks can be maintained for reuse. For instance, there might be a code module that creates a report format is used in one application. This module could be saved in a library in the disk of the controller. If there is a need for such a report format function in another new program, this module could be used, instead of writing new code to perform this function.
The automation controller should have built-in diagnostic capabilities. The operating system of the controller will have some diagnostics available to monitor and troubleshoot the environment. This can cut the expense of writing diagnostics and having to test and debug them. Since the diagnostics are part of the controller operating system, it will be easy to use them to support any program that runs in your manufacturing operation.
The programs that run in the memory of the controller are not an inherent part of the controller, but are totally separate. This makes any program that runs on the controller available to run in support of any part of the automation. Programs are loaded and executed by the operating system that is on the controller, making overall operations much easier.
Your company will be “best” served by inquiring of a solution provider that has expertise to help you to define the “best” controller for the manufacturing automation that you employ. The provider will look at all of your automation requirements and define the “best” controller to fill your needs.
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