Industrial microwave & plasma generators are only building blocks of larger, sometimes extremely complex plants and production lines. While in some cases a plant might only contain one or a few generators, which might be under constant supervision of the plant operators, in other cases 20, 40 or more generators are installed in fully automatic production lines, without any direct human supervision. In order to reduce rejects and waste to a minimum, ensure highest productivity and fulfil stringiest quality requirements it is therefore often required to supervise the generators via integration into suitable industrial control system. All generators offered by us either already include an interface suitable for the required integration, usually a CANopen interface, or can be equipped with a choice of optional interfaces, e.g. DeviceNet, EtherCAT or PROFIBUS. Depending on the system at hand, there are basically two choices for the master control system, either a PLC or SCADA system:
A PLC system (ProgrammableLogicController) is the right choice for stand-alone plants with a limited number of generators. Typical examples are continuous UHF / microwave vulcanisation lines, vacuum metallising plants and plants for microwave heating & drying. The integration of the microwave generators inside the PLC system does not only ensure that in case of a malfunction the operators are immediately informed, but also offers additional advantages like enhanced safety interlocks and automatic control of the microwave power via recipe management, ensuring consistent process parameters and product quality. In certain cases it might also be required to control the microwave power in a closed control loop, e.g. based on product temperature or reflected power. This functionality can be easily implemented into a suitable PLC system.
A SCADA system (SupervisoryControlAndDataAcquisition) is a computer based industrial control system designed for the control and supervision of large and often very complex plants, e.g. semiconductor manufacturing lines, solar cell production lines etc. SCADA systems are capable of synchronising several otherwise autonomous plants, e.g. during production start-up and shut-down, and keep the complete manufacturing process within the allowable tolerances. Typically SCADA system are also used for the logging of all critical production parameters to assist quality control and to trace back problems with production charges.
We do not only offer our generators with suitable interfaces for the integration into existing PLC or SCADA systems, but on request also design, build and program a system tailor-made for your application. Should you have any requirements please contact us.