At major industrial automation exhibitions, if you often attend the exhibition, careful friends will notice that many equipment manufacturers will have supporting PLC manufacturers and industrial computer manufacturers nearby. Of course, the large PLC manufacturers also have their own industrial computer research and development products. Many people will have questions about the difference between PLC and industrial computer? Today, I make up an article with you to understand the difference between PLC and industrial computer.
The full name of PLC in English is Program mable Logic Controller, which was produced in the early 1970s. The earliest PLC appeared in the role of replacing the relay system, and its main function was simply a logically simple sequence control function.
After decades of development, PLC is a special design for sequential control using computer principles, and it is also versatile and easy to use. PLC adopts a proprietary hardware design, which can provide safe and reliable control applications and relatively complete solutions for diversified automation equipment. Generally speaking, PLC has relatively single function, strong stability and low cost.
PLC motherboard used in filing cabinet unlocking products
At present, the technological development of PLC has become a modular, modular design of the processor, and large-capacity memory can be patched to meet real-time control requirements. The diversity of I/O interfaces can be used for scanning, control, and remote data exchange. It also supports functions such as integrated control, communication, parallel computing, interruption and stability maintenance.
Of course, many PLC companies have information coprocessor modules, high-level language coprocessors, network adaptation modules, and I/O modules with special functions, etc., to provide reliable and professional services for different scenarios in a variety of application industries.
In the field of industrial automation, PLC and industrial computer are two types of equipment for mechanical control, and they are also the basic equipment for most automation systems. For a long time, PLC has always been active in the main battlefield in the field of industrial automation control. Observing the exhibition carefully, you can imagine the number of PLC and industrial computer manufacturers.
Industrial computer is called Industrial Computer in English, and it adopts PCI bus and PC/104 bus based on the characteristics of computer. In terms of processing performance, the industrial computer can have a powerful CPU, integrate rich I/O interfaces, and have advantages in computing, storage, networking, and software openness. It also has a functional expansion board to connect I/O points to realize PLC control Function. In general, the performance, operation and maintenance computing power of an industrial computer is stronger than that of a PLC.
In addition, due to the technological development of industrial PCs, the fan cooling system of the year has been adopted to the current low power consumption fanless passive cooling system. More and more companies are also adopting modular design, integrating many advantages of PLC and developing a variety of I/O adapter boards to connect large-scale integrated circuit devices. At present, the development of industrial computer is from one-machine one-screen design to HMI function with human-computer interaction.
In terms of application, the application industries of PLC and industrial computer are not much different. They are generally used in mining, metallurgy, cement, electric power, chemical, petroleum, machinery manufacturing, automobiles, textiles, papermaking, environmental protection, and loading and unloading industries. Mainly used in: sequence control, motion control, data processing, etc.
There are obvious differences in technical characteristics between PLC and industrial computer, but they are constantly absorbing each other's advantages to adapt to different application sites.
PLC advantages
1. PLC has small size, low power consumption and strong anti-interference ability, which is suitable for adapting to harsh environments;
2. PLC is a simple machine with high reliability, and its mean time interval between failures (MTBF) can reach 500,000 or even 1 million hours;
3. PLC has a simple and intuitive programming mode (such as ladder diagram);
4. The PLC has an internal real-time clock.
5. Low maintenance cost.
Advantages of industrial computer
1. The industrial computer has large computing capabilities;
2. With open standard system platform and PCI interface;
3. External multi-screen display technology can be connected;
4. Abundant networking capabilities;
5. The failure-free time of the industrial computer is about 50,000 hours (different manufacturers or application environments have different failure-free time).
6. It can be used for data collection and has powerful computing capabilities.
