Industrial automation technology, as one of the most important technologies in modern manufacturing in the 20th century, primarily addresses the issues of production efficiency and consistency. Whether it's a high-speed, high-volume manufacturing enterprise or one pursuing flexibility, adaptability, and customization, all must rely on the application of automation technology. While automation systems themselves do not directly create profits, they significantly improve the enterprise's production processes.
(1) Improve the safety of the production process;
(2) Improve production efficiency;
(3) Improve product quality;
(4) Reduce the consumption of raw materials and energy in the production process.
According to statistics from authoritative international consulting firms, the return on investment in automation systems to improve corporate efficiency is approximately 1:4 to 1:6. Especially in capital-intensive enterprises, automation systems, which account for less than 10% of total equipment investment, can achieve significant results with minimal investment.
Traditional industrial automation systems, also known as mechatronics systems, primarily control equipment and production processes. These systems consist of hardware elements such as mechanical bodies, power systems, testing and sensing systems, actuators, drive systems, control and signal processing units, and interfaces. Guided by the purposeful flow of information through software programs and electronic circuit logic, these elements coordinate, organically integrate, and merge to form an orderly and regulated movement of matter and energy, thus constituting an industrial automation system or product.
In the field of industrial automation, traditional control systems have gone through a development process from base-type pneumatic instrument control systems, electric unit combined analog instrument control systems, centralized digital control systems, and distributed control systems (DCS).
With the development of industrial control technology, computer, communication, and network technologies, the scope of information interaction and communication is rapidly expanding from the field equipment level in factories to all levels of control and management. Industrial control systems generally refer to the collective term for automated technology tools (including automatic measuring instruments and control devices) used to measure and control industrial production processes and their electromechanical equipment and process equipment.
