The September Technology Evening, hosted by Festo at its East Rand premises, was split into two presentations.
Puseletso Mashile, a final year chemical engineering student, Exco member of the Unisa Chemical Engineering Society (UCES) and someone with a passion for water and South Africa, presented the first segment. A three day training module on water and wastewater management, which is offered by Festo, was condensed to a 40 minute presentation. Puseletso pointed out that the current water shortages were identified as far back as 2000 and only through training, automation and improved cooperation of all stakeholders, will South African be able to meet the need for water, which is so critical to the development of the nation. A lively question and answer session ensued and it was encouraging to see the optimism toward being able to solve our problem of dwindling water resources.
Markus Gericke, a system sales engineer at Festo, responsible for electric drives and with more than 15 years’ experience in industrial automation, gave the second presentation – a lively talk on Industry 4.0 and Codesys.
A summarised explanation of Industry 4.0
• Tomorrow’s production systems will be based on decentralised intelligence, and autonomously functioning, mechatronic modules.
• Ongoing automation of processes will be made possible by digitisation and networking.
• As an innovations leader and a global supplier of automation technology, Festo is working on basic technologies and intelligent components that will serve as the foundation for Industry 4.0 production systems.
Modular automation will affect a fundamental shift in the design and engineering of process plants. The key is a common programming language: Codesys is an industrial programming software tool developed by 3-S Smart Software. It was released in 1994 and remains free of charge to all who use it. The software tool covers different aspects of industrial automation technology in one platform and conforms to IEC-61131 and caters for programming languages such as IL (Instruction List), ST (Structured Text), LD (Ladder Diagram), FBD (Function Block Diagram) SFC (Sequential Function Chart) and CFC (Continuous Function Chart). It was interesting to note that different fieldbus systems can be used with Codesys.
Process automation segment manager Olaf Mayer-Mader of Festo South Africa thanked Johannesburg branch chairman Mike Banda for the opportunity to host the evening.
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