Sofcon Conducted Industrial Automation | Embedded technology Workshop

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you, yesterday Sofcon has conducted a workshop upon Industrial Automation and EmbeddedTechnology in R.P.Educational Trust,Karnal Haryana.

We were highly and sincere appreciated by college management and students.College has given AWARD OF HONOUR to our team, in the regnition of the contribution for ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE.

Automation Future Growth of Indian Manufacturing Sector | Industrial Automation Training With Sofcon

It is essential for current-day manufacturers to be extremely efficient and prudent in order to handle fluctuating market demand, and simultaneously ensure profitability. Clearly, Indian manufacturers are trying to achieve more with fewer resources. Therefore, they are relentlessly striving to reduce costs and remain competitive. Advances in the automation and control solutions space are also expected to maintain the same pace as evolving end-user challenges. Hence, despite the prevailing economic scenario, demand for best-in-class solutions in the manufacturing sector would remain high. Significant growth potential in the automotive segment, automotive sales and exports, sustained interest toward electronics manufacturing, and increasing investments in consumer packaged goods, among others, stand out as shining examples of the underlying potential of implementing automation in the industrial sector.

Major end users of automation technology will continue to be power, oil and gas, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, and automotive industries, as they continue to provide significant growth potential. Other industries such as consumer packaged goods (CPG), electronics, and textiles are also expected to generate significant demand for automation in the coming years. The total automation and control solutions market in India (including DCS, PLC, MES, HMI, SCADA, and APC), which generated USD1352.4 million as revenues in 2011, is expected to generate USD 2077.3 Million in 2015; with Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.3 percent.

The Industrial Automation and Process Control Practice of Frost & Sullivan will be hosting the 2012 India Industrial Technologies Summit, an annual forum focused on highlighting the evolving, discrete industry imperatives on December 11, 2012, in Bangalore. This edition of the Industrial Technologies Summit will focus on the Discrete Manufacturing Segment.; while the subsequent edition will focus on the Process Segment-which is scheduled to be held in February 2013.

Arunkumar Janarathnan, Industry Manager, Industrial Automation & Process Control Practice, Frost & Sullivan, emphasizes that, "Frost & Sullivan's 2012 India Industrial Technologies Summit reflects the sense of urgency felt amongst the Indian industrial community to be future-ready now; and seeks to address this immediate need through a forum focused on innovations and best practices."

Key focus areas to be discussed at the Summit include Anticipated Challenges and Growth Strategies, Economic Indicators and Impact of the Global Investment Climate, Vital Market Drivers, Companies Success, Consistent Innovation in Process and Technologies to Enhance Productivity as well as Shareholder Returns, and much more. The Summit will provide a strategic platform for product/solution/component providers and end users to deliberate on key factors that would ensure future readiness of Indian manufacturing.

The vision partner supporting the Summit is Mitsubishi Electric India Private Limited (MEI) and the knowledge partners are Omron Automation Private Limited and Siemens. The media partners supporting the summit are Automation and Controls Today, A&D India, Automonitor, Bizxchange.in, Industry2.0, and Manufacturing Today.

Source:-http://www.indiainfoline.com/article/news/automation%27future-growth-of-indian-manufacturing-sector-frost-and-sullivan-5547691842_1.html

Ratan Tata invests in Urban Ladder

MUMBAI: After making personal investments in e-commerce major Snapdeal and online jewellery store Bluestone, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Sons is now laying a wager on furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder.

Tata's investment comes just four months after the Bangalore-based startup raised $21 million in a second round of funding from Hong Kong's Steadview Capital and its existing investors, as reported first by TOI in July this year. The undisclosed investment amount from Tata comes at a time when the country's online commerce market is witnessing frenetic growth leading to top dollar being funnelled into the sector.

"He (Tata) understands the furniture space very well, specially our focus on product design since he has a lot of knowledge of the subject. His inputs and guidance will be very valuable for us," said Ashish Goel, CEO & co-founder of the two-year-old company. "We are extremely proud that Urban Ladder caught his attention. His investment in the company reassures us of the path we have taken towards creating value for customers with great products and exceptional service," Goel said.

Urban Ladder was launched in July 2012 by IIT & IIM graduates Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa and competes with other online furniture retailers, including Pepperfry and Rocket Internet-backed Fab Furnish, in a category which is growing steadily and has attracted interest from e-commerce biggies like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. The impending launch of Swedish furniture

giant IKEA is likely to stir up the largely unorganized furniture market in India, which is estimated at $8-10 billion. The e-tailer has so far raised around $30 million in risk capital with investors like Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital on board.



Urban Ladder offers as many as 30 sub-categories, presently which are divided into core, distinctive and unique offerings. The e-tailer aims to have 10% unique offerings, 20-25% distinctive products while the rest would come under its core offerings.



Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Ratan-Tata-invests-in-Urban-Ladder/articleshow/45154040.cms

Auto Mains Failure PLC Program Using Omron PLC

Auto start up of the DG when the Mains Supply fails . This is a very common system and is the first step in DG synchronization.
Here we will see that what is the basic concept in AMF? What hardware is required to set up AMF and how PLC Programming is done.

First of all let us understand what is AMF?
Generally all the major industries/companies/institution have the DG for power back up , but when when main power is cut off , someone has to go to start the DG and this takes time and also a man has to be kept for this purpose. So to eliminate this process PLC panel is installed to Auto start the DG when main power fails.

Working is as follows:- when main power goes , a signal is received to PLC and after 2 minutes DG starts . When the Main supply fail signal is received by PLC then after a delay time (can be from 1 to 2 minute) , output for ACB/Contactor of DG is ON and DG starts automatically. Also the ACB/Contractor of main transformer if sent OFF Command. When main power comes then the signal is again sent to PLC and PLC off the ACB/Contactor of DG and after 2 seconds it on the ACB/Contactor of main transformer and after 30 seconds it off the DG. DG is sent OFF command a little late so that the load beared by DG for a long time can be compensated by running at no load for some time.

NOTE :- In no Condition the ACB/Contactor of both DG and Main transformer should be ON.

So this is the main concept in DG AMF system.
In a simple system there are generally 4 inputs and 4 outputs.

Inputs :- 1. DG ACB/Contactor close feedback.
2. Transformer ACB/Contactor close feedback.
3. Transformer Voltage Available.
4. DG Voltage Availaible.

Outputs :- 1. DG start.
2. DG Stop
3. DG ACB/Contactor close.
4. Transformer ACB/Contactor close.

How to Make Start Stop Logic in PLC using Different NO-NC Combination

This Tutorial Will teach you how to use NO and NC for making Start stop logic. For this we understand that you have basic knowledge of No and NC . You can also learn Basic of PLC here.

To make start-stop logic you just have to write a simple program in PLC. In Electrical it is possible to make start – stop logic with a NO start push button and NC stop push button BUT in PLC you can make start-stop logic with any combination of start and stop push button.

Let us understand ……..

**PB- Push Button, NO – Normally Open, NC – Normally Closed**

1> Start PB – NO , Stop PB – NC



2> Start PB – NO , Stop PB – NO



3> Start PB – NC , Stop PB – NO




4> Start PB – NC , Stop PB – NC




Source:-http://www.automation-talk.info/2010/07/how-to-make-start-stop-logic-in-plc.html

Different Type of List AC/DC Electrical Motors

Motors are the heart of any plant or industry. The origin of Motor was to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy. DC motor was the first one to be invented and was result of concepts of electromagnetism by Michael Faraday. Today DC Motors , AC Motors - Induction , Squirrel Cage , Servo and Stepper Motor are used widely. We will see in brief about all these different types of Motors used in Automation Industry.


Electrical Motors In Industries :-

1) AC Motor :- We have already discussed the history of AC Motor in our earlier post. There is two broad classification of AC motors first Induction Motor and second as Synchronous Motors.
AC Induction Motor can viewed as Transformer for easy understanding. When voltage is applied to primary of Transformer a current flows and as a result current is induced in secondary winding of transformer.

The primary can be considered as Stator and Secondary as Rotor of AC Induction Motor. The magnetic field set up in the Stator results in Induced Magnetic Field in Rotor and results in Motion. Working of AC Induction Motor discussed already.

Synchronous Motor is same as Induction motor but with different Rotor configuration. The rotor is constructed in such a way that the Rotor is able to rotate with exactly same speed as of stator field. There are two variants of Synchronous Motor - self excited and Directly excited.

2) DC Motors :- DC Motors have been used in Past over the AC motors for applications demanding Speed and Position Control . Until the Introduction of Power electronics the speed variation of DC Motor was easier. In DC Motors the field in stationary in stator and rotor field, is set up by passing current through a commutator and into the rotor assembly. There are different types of DC motors as Shunt Wound Motor, Series Wound Motor and Compound Wound Motor.Subscribe to Automation-Talk by Email

3) Stepper Motor :- As the name indicates Step Motors are used for Converting the Digital Inputs commands in to Analog motion with the help of motor controller electronics.
Stepper Motor Rotates in angular positions according to the digital pulses Inputs. There are different types of Stepper Motors namely as solenoid activated, variable reluctance,permanent magnet and synchronous inductor stepper Motor.

4) PMDC Motor :- PMDC stands for permanent magnet DC , and is mostly used in closed loop system with effective feedback system. In these Motors there is linear speed-torque curve due to permanent magnet which provide provide constant field flux at all speeds. This Motor generates high starting or acceleration torque with light weight and thus used for rapid positioning applications.

5) Servo Motor :- Servo Motor works on servo-mechanism , best for closed loop applications . A controller issue commands for position/speed/torque control of motor shaft. "Servo" is a very big word to understand and we will be discussing more about servo drives, controllers and closed loop system in details in our further posts.



Source:-http://www.automation-talk.info/2011/02/different-type-of-electrical-motors.html

Embedded Software Risk Areas -- An Industry Study

I've had the opportunity to do many design reviews of real embedded software projects over the past decade or so.  About 95 reviews since 1996. For each review I usually had access to the project's source code and design documentation.  And in most cases I got to spend a day with the designers in person. The point of the reviews was usually identifying risk areas that they should address before the product went into production. Sometimes the reviews were post mortems -- trying to find out what caused a project failure so it could be fixed. And sometimes the reviews were more narrow (for example, just look at security or safety issues for a project). But in most cases I (sometimes with a co-reviewer) found one or more "red flag" issues that really needed to be addressed.

In other postings I'll summarize the red flag issues I found from all those reviews. Perhaps surprisingly, even engineers with no formal training in embedded systems tend to get the basics right. The books that are out there are good enough for a well trained non-computer engineer to pick up what they need to get basic functionality right most of the time. Where they have problems are in the areas of complex system integration (for example, real time scheduling) and  software process. I'm a hard-core lone cowboy techie at heart, and process is something I've learned gradually over the years as that sort of thing proved to be a problem for projects I observed. Well, based on a decade of design reviews I'm here to tell you that process and a solid design methodology matters. A lot. Even for small projects and small teams. Even for individuals. Details to follow in upcoming posts.

I'm giving a keynote talk at an embedded system education workshop at the end of October. But for non-academics, you'd probably just like me to summarize what I found:

(The green bar means it is things most embedded system experts think are the usual problems -- they were still red flags!) In other words, of all the red flag issues identified in these reviews, only about 1/3 were technical issues. The rest were either pieces missing from the software process or things that weren't being written down well enough.

Before you dismiss me as just another process guy who wants you to generate lots of useless paper, consider these points:

• I absolutely hate useless paper. Seriously!  I'm a techie, not a process guy. So I got dragged kicking and screaming to the conclusion that more process and more paper help (sometimes).

• These were not audits or best practice reviews. What I mean by that is we did NOT say "the rule book says you have to have paper of type X, and it is missing, so you get a red flag." What we DID say, probably most of the time, was "this paper is missing, but it's not going to kill you -- so not a red flag."  Only once in a while was a process or paperwork problem such high risk that it got a red flag.

• Most reviews had only a handful of red flags, and every one was a time bomb waiting to explode. Most of the time bombs were in process and paperwork, not technology.

Source:-http://betterembsw.blogspot.in/2010/10/embedded-software-risk-areas-industry.html