The topic for the June Technical Evening, presented by Kallie Bodenstein of Yokogawa, compared the differences between ‘DCS vs. PLC’. From the branch’s perspective, if it was up to us, we would award the prize for best ‘exhibition’ to Yokogawa for the effort taken to setup a comprehensive simulation test bench, affording attendees (who included our peers but also some very clever students) the opportunity for some hands-on practice.
Jurie Weidemann (left) thanks Kallie Bodenstein after the presentation.
Kallie, who has been providing training since 2005, gave a brief history and overview of PLC/scada and DCS systems, however, ultimately there are seven questions one has to ask oneself when deciding which system to use:
1. What is being manufactured, and how? If it is ‘things’ PLC else if ‘stuff’ DCS.
2. What is the value of that being produced and the cost of downtime? High = DCS.
3. What do you view as the ‘heart of the system’? If controller then PLC, if supervisory then DCS.
4. What does the operator need to be successful? Handles exceptions then PLC.
5. What system performance is required? Fast then PLC, high levels of redundancy then DCS.
6. What degree of customisation is required? Extensive libraries then DCS.
7. What are the engineering expectations? Bottom up approach e.g. individual components then PLC or if top down, e.g. upfront design process followed then DCS.
Plant in a box simulation.
The above is only an extract. Kindly contact Petrus Klopper ([email protected]) should you require a copy of the presentation or for more info on the ’plant in a box’ simulators.
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