Industrial Control Systems

Industrial Automation is Nothing Without Finely Tuned Control Systems

Midwest Engineered System’s high-performance automation solutions make connecting your machines, data and people simple. MWES industrial control systems provide greater flexibility, increased productivity, less risk and lower costs by visualizing and running processes with state-of-the-art operator interfaces, keeping critical systems up and running, and leveraging the latest functional and process safety systems.

As an automated production line integrator, MWES understands the industrial sector’s need for high-quality, effective automation control systems is becoming increasingly apparent. The right industrial automation control systems can create new paths for organizations to grow and become more interconnected.

The goal of industrial control systems (ICS) in automation is to integrate functions and processes between industrial machines, equipment and devices within manufacturing plants. With automation control systems, repetitive tasks can be easily handled while other resources are used to optimize industrial production-level processes. This capability will cover repetitive tasks such as the creation and maintenance of batch information records, batch changeovers, the creation of schedules for periodic machine maintenance and many other tasks.

Automation control systems can also be used to streamline the process of scaling a plant’s production up or down or to ease the process of incorporating new products into a plant’s production line. Whether the automation control system is a robotic, manufacturing machine or assembly line system, there are many ways to make each of those systems more efficient and profitable through better automation control systems.

Advanced communication and data transmission for industrial automation control systems depends on smart devices, sensors on equipment and data security measures. These automated actions could allow the plant’s production levels to be scaled automatically based on the most up-to-date collected distribution channels and sales information. Another example would be machines moving from one batch to the next batch without interruption.

Benefits of Automation Control Systems

There are a number of benefits for organizations when they integrate automation control systems into their manufacturing plants.

Greater accuracy – Larger amounts of data can be collected. This can lead to extensive gains in terms of both individual product and batch traceability.
Integration – Automation control systems can create greater cohesion between the plant and supply chains, research and development, sales, compliance processes and other business sectors within an organization.
Resource efficiency – With fewer resources needed for tracing industrial products and batches, other departments such as customer service can benefit.
Competitive adaptability – Automated control systems offer more flexibility in manufacturing processes and improve an organization’s competitiveness within tumultuous industrial markets.

Types of Industrial Control Systems

Industrial control systems are organized into several classes by reference to their control action’s relative complexity of the overall functions of the ICS.

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC)

A PLC is an industrial automation control system that constantly tracks the conditions of input devices and is programmed to use these conditions to control the respective states of the system's output devices. PLCs are effective for virtually all robotic automation, manufacturing machine and assembly line systems. Its chief benefit is the ability to regulate and replicate various processes and operations while gathering and transmitting plant-relevant information.

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Human-Machine Interface (HMI)

HMIs are user interfaces and dashboards that create a more intuitive connection between people and certain devices, machines or systems. An HMI can be used in industrial plants to perform a wide range of actions. They display and can manage Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), visually present data and track production metrics such as tags, production times and manufacturing trends.

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Distributed Control Systems (DCS)

DCS are systems of controllers, sensors and specialized computers that are distributed through industrial plants.

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Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC)

PACs often have more connectivity options and a wider capability of controlling systems than most PLC systems.

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Industrial Automation & Control Systems (IACS)

IACS can track and control many processes through sensors on machines, smart devices and other software and hardware that turns sensor information into different control outputs.

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Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED)

IEDs are incorporated into ICS structures to facilitate highly sophisticated power automation capabilities. IEDs are electronic components with microprocessors, such as a circuit controller and regulator device.

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Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

SCADA systems were designed to solve communication issues, particularly data integrity and delay issues stemming from the various communication media.

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Remote Terminal Units (RTU)

RTUs also manage connections to remote or local controls, which is why they are known as remote units of tele-control or remote units of telemetry.

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Data Collection Systems (DCS)

DCS can help improve the quality, efficiency, and productivity of industrial processes by providing real-time insights, identifying root causes of problems and optimizing performance.

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