Industrial Automation, PLC, VFD, and Troubleshooting
A PLC program should do more than make a machine run.
A professional PLC program should be:
OrganizedReadableTroubleshooting-friendlySafeConsistentExpandableMaintainable
In real industrial environments, machines are modified, maintained, repaired, upgraded, and troubleshot by different technicians …
Read MoreIn industrial automation, two words appear constantly in PLC logic:
PermissiveInterlock
They are related, but they are not exactly the same.
Understanding the difference helps automation technicians troubleshoot faster, read ladder logic better, …
Read MoreIn industrial automation, many machines operate in steps.
A door opens, stops, closes, and faults.A conveyor starts, runs, stops, and detects jams.A filler waits for a bottle, fills, verifies level, and …
Read MoreIn professional PLC programming, one of the best practices is to separate raw physical I/O from the logic used inside the program.
This is done using:
Input BufferingOutput Buffering
Input buffering means copying …
Read MoreRSLogix 500 and Studio 5000 Examples
In industrial PLC programming, a machine state is a numeric value that tells the program what step or condition the machine is currently in.
Instead of …
Read MoreA Simple and Professional Way to Organize Ladder Logic
In industrial PLC programming, the logic should not be written randomly. A professional PLC program is usually organized in a clear sequence …
Read MoreA Critical Difference Every PLC Technician Should Understand
In industrial automation, two words are often used together but do not mean exactly the same thing:
Permissive and Interlock
Both are used to control …
Read MoreUnderstanding the Three Most Common PLC Timer Instructions
Timers are one of the most important instructions in PLC programming. They are used everywhere in industrial automation.
You will see timers used for:
Start-up …
Read MoreHow a PLC Reads, Thinks, and Acts
One of the most important concepts for anyone learning PLCs is the PLC scan cycle.
At first, ladder logic may look like electrical wiring, but …
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