Industrial Automation, PLC, VFD, and Troubleshooting
In PLC troubleshooting, one of the most powerful and dangerous tools is forcing.
A PLC force allows a technician or programmer to manually override the normal state of an input or …
Read MoreIn PLC programming, not every instruction directly turns on a motor, counts a box, or starts a timer.
Some instructions are used to control how the PLC program executes.
These are called …
Read MoreIn the previous post, we covered standard PLC counters such as:
CTU = Count Up
CTD = Count Down
CTUD = Count Up / Count Down
Those counters work well for many basic counting …
Read MoreIn industrial automation, PLC counters are used when a machine needs to count events.
A counter can count:
Parts
Boxes
Bottles
Cycles
Machine strokes
Rejects
Pallets
Sensor pulses
Production totals
A counter does not count time.A counter counts how many times …
Read MoreIn the previous post, we covered the basic PLC timer instructions:
TON = Timer On Delay
TOF = Timer Off Delay
RTO = Retentive Timer On
Now we are going one step deeper.
In real …
Read MoreTimers are one of the most common instructions used in PLC programming.
A timer allows the PLC to use time as part of the control logic.
In simple words:
A PLC timer waits …
Read MoreAn interlock is a condition used to prevent two incompatible or unsafe actions from happening at the same time.
In simple words:
An interlock blocks an action when another condition makes that …
Read MoreSeal-In Circuits Explained
A seal-in circuit is one of the most important basic patterns in PLC ladder logic and relay logic.
It is commonly used when an operator presses a momentary Start …
Read MoreLadder Logic is one of the most common PLC programming languages used in industrial automation.
It was designed to look similar to electrical relay control circuits, which makes it easier for …
Read MoreBefore learning advanced PLC programming, every automation technician must understand the basic logic operations used in ladder logic.
The three most important logic functions are:
AND
OR
NOT
These are the foundation of almost every …
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