As technology has expanded, companies have moved forward and embraced it. They have employed various methods to improve the quality, speed and economics of their production lines. One specific means of achieving this is to install automated systems. By incorporating these mechanisms into either machinery or lines, companies in Minneapolis have joined others around the world.
Purpose
These systems have a singular initial purpose. They speed up the production process by taking over task that companies consider too time consuming or menial. Some manufacturing concerns use automation to help reduce labor. They also ask innovative fabricators to produce ones designed to address jobs that may prove to be difficult or dangerous for employees.
Some create a product from the beginning to the end. They may only handle specifics. Overall, they handle a variety of tasks:
- Manufacturing
- Production processes
- Industrial control
- Medical applications
- Printing applications
- Numerical control systems
Automated Systems go beyond mechanization. While the later process relies on a human operator to oversee, provide input and control the machine, automation does not. It eliminates operators, fulfilling its directives from start to finish without any assistance form humans.
Types of Automation Systems
Automated machines are an integral part of modern manufacturing processes. Not all are the same. Different types of systems exist to perform specific functions. The types vary and include the following:
- Artificial Neural Network: A mathematical or computational model
- Distributed Control System: Separate controls are spread throughout the system
- User/Human Machine Interface: A user provides the input with the system producing the output requested
- Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA): A large network comprised of sub systems including user interface
- Programmable Logic Controller (PLC): This a real time system controls manufacturing machines in a production line. It multi-tasks and can do many jobs including running amusement park rides and setting the specific required temperature for a job lot.
These comprise the basic types of operating automated systems available for a company. However, companies can arrange for a system that will meet their own needs. Fabrication companies work together with the manufacturing interest to provide an innovative but practical solution.
Automated Systems
Companies have turned to mechanization of some form or another whenever possible. Arguably, the biggest strides in this direction began with the Industrial Revolution. Automation is the next step beyond mechanization. It removes more of the human element. As industries strive to do more with less human power, automated systems begin to take over more industrial facilities of all sizes in Minneapolis and globally.
