HistoryofControl HistoryofPLCandDCS （HistoryofControl HistoryofPLCandDCS ）.pdf

History of Control History of PLC and DCS Vanessa Romero Segovia and Alfred Theorin 2012-06-15 (minor revision 2013-07-26) 1 Introduction The way many industrial processes look today, is the result of many years of research and hard work of people commited to improve their functionality, man- agement, and organization. One could recall the phrase ”necessity is the mother of invention”, and certainly this would fit the everyday work of control engineers and technicians working in industrial processes during the 50’s and 60’s. This necessity was the origin of devices such as the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and the Distributed Control System (DCS). 2 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) A programmable logic controller (PLC) is an industrially hardened computer- based unit that performs discrete or continuous control functions in a variety of processing plant and factory environments. It was originally intended as a relay replacement equipment for the automotive industry. Nowadays the PLC is used in virtually every industry imaginable. Though they were commonly referred to as PCs before 1980, PLC became the accepted abbreviation for programmable logic controllers, as the term ”PC” became synonymous with personal computers in recent decades. The sheer number of PLC applications is enormous. According to a recent Control Engineering magazine poll, ”The major applications for PLCs include machine control (87%), process control (58%), motion control (40%), batch control (26%), diagnostic (18%), and other (3%).” The results dont add up to 100% because a single control system generally has multiple applications. PLCs are produced and sold worldwide as stand-alone equipment by several major control equipment manufacturers. In addition, a variety of more spe- cialized companies produce PLCs for original equipment manufacturer (OEM)