Topic 1.1.2: Batch Control System Overview
- The batch control system is a batch supervisory system designed for applications in which batch processing flexibility is important. The batch control system is an open system that allows you to use a standard controller as a batch controller and a PC as the supervisory station.
- It is important to understand how InBatch interacts with the control system. In an InBatch system, the PLC is still responsible for controlling the process. However, the PLC program typically must be altered.
- In an InBatch system, every action that can be performed by a piece of equipment must be modeled as a "phase". For example, let's assume that your plant contains 4 reactors that can heat, cool, soak and agitate product. In an InBatch system each of these actions must be programmed in the PLC as a separate action, with its own control and status bits so that the action can be initiated by InBatch and controlled and monitored during the actions execution.
- So there would be one self-contained phase to cool the reactor, one self-contained phase to heat the reactor etc.
- By modeling each action as a controllable "phase", InBatch can download the proper parameters for a phases execution and sequence a set of phases in the order necessary to produce a desired batch.
- This means that once the PLC code is converted to InBatch phases, no further code changes are required.
- The PLC actions stay the same, they are simply sequenced by InBatch according to the recipe procedure.
- This is especially attractive to processes that are federally regulated as the work required to re-certify a PLC code change could be very lengthy and difficult.
Last modified: Monday, 27 April 2020, 12:34 PM