Process control
As process control is referred to means and methods in the interest of controlling, regulating and securing of process plants. Central funds are the process control system and the PLC device. There is also the connection Programmed control, but that is very burdensome for more complex applications, and is therefore only used where the installation of a PLC appears too complicated or special requirements for safety.
A procedural process changes substances according to the type, characteristics and composition. Typical process plants are refineries, cement plants, chemical plants, rolling mills or paper mills. Related fields such as discrete manufacturing or building have developed analogous methods such as the production control systems and building control systems. The basic task of process control is to control this process and monitor to (temperature, liquid level, humidity, etc.) to comply with certain target states and trigger an alarm for large deviations or to activate a safety function. The modules of the process control communicate via special data connections (Profibus, Modbus, LON). Increasingly, however, put the cheaper data connections from the computer world in this area, and there is almost no system that is not equipped with the standard in the PC world ( Ethernet) network.
Of course, modern process control systems can send e -mails and send information via SMS to mobile phones. The programming of systems of process control is done with prefabricated software building blocks, which significantly reduces the number of errors and increases the operational reliability ( instead of programming configure ). This is important because these systems partially control and monitor processes with a certain risk potential. For the presentation of the inner workings of the process ( plant, machinery ) are also pre-programmed blocks to build a graphical representation ( process visualization ) that can be displayed on a PC or directly coupled to a monitor.
In 1990 a Chair of Process Control Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Faculty of Mining, Metallurgy and Earth Sciences was established in Germany for the first time. As the first Chair Martin Polke was appointed in 1991, former director of process control of Bayer AG Leverkusen, Germany. He has built this chair both as a stand-alone academic instruction ( textbook process control engineering in 1992 and 1994) as well as in the practical research for further development of this new professional profile. Since his retirement in 1995, the Chair of Ulrich Epple continues, who also worked at Bayer AG. At the TU Dresden also has a Chair of Process Control Engineering at the Institute of Automation Technology was set up, which is open since 2006 with Leon Urbas, formerly Technical University of Berlin.