Temperature Monitoring System using an Infrared

Temperature Sensor Connected to a PLC

Georgel Gabor Georgian-Cosmin Pintilie

Dep. Electrical Engineering Dep. Electrical Engineering
Faculty IEEIA, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University Faculty IEEIA, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University
Iasi, Romania Iasi, Romania
[email protected]
Maricel Cardasim
Adrian-Traian Plesca Dep. Electrical Engineering
Dep. Electrical Engineering Faculty IEEIA, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University
Faculty IEEIA, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University Iasi, Romania
Iasi, Romania

Abstract— In industrial systems, there are various situations, 10Vcc trough the analog input of the Siemens PLC [2]. The
in which it’s difficult to monitor the temperature at a key point of values of the sensor temperature can be saved in a trend,
an electrical equipment such as high power breaking breaks, designed in TIA Portal software by Siemens.
automatic entrances, current paths, contact lines, force contacts
from normal separations or load medium or high voltage circuits
in electric power train systems or electric traction systems. In this II. SYSTEM STRUCTURE
paper we present a system for on-line monitoring of the
temperature on the contact high voltage surface from a medium A. Selecting a Template (Heading 2)
voltage monopolar separator used in the electric railway traction. The system is composed of the load separator, the
An infrared temperature transducer is used which converts the acquisition system and processing part of the parameter values
temperature value into an electric signal in the 0-10v range. This as in Fig.1. The load separator is a mechanical device which,
electrical signal is used as an analogue input size for a Siemens for security reasons, ensures in the open position a
S7-1200 PLC. An application was developed that monitors online predetermined isolation distance between the terminals of each
temperature on the strength of the contact force, allowing the pole of the rail load separator. The separator is used to close or
HMI monitor to view the temperature value, the actual size, and open electrical circuits when a current of a certain intensity, not
also the graphical evolution of the temperature values over a applicable for the normal separators and of a certain value for
period of time. It also shows the experimental installation, the
the load separators is interrupted. The separator must be able to
electrical drawing, the temperature value must fit within a
withstand long-lasting current under normal circuit conditions
certain acceptable range.
and also withstand current for a specific duration under
Keywords— Temperature, PLC, serial comunication, HMI, abnormal conditions, such as short-circuit conditions.
traction system The separators are divided into the following product
groups:
I. INTRODUCTION
• three-pole separators of 12kV and 24kV knife type
Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a device used in
automation systems and it is widely used in industrial • tripolar separators of 12kV and 24kV tippers
environment due to its high reliability, program flexibility and
• separators 42, 72.5. 123, 145 and 245kV
strong adaptability for all kinds of harsher environments [1]. In
railway electric traction system is important to measure the • monopolar separators 420kV
temperature of contact point of a monopolar separator to ensure
safety of the railway system. Most of the time, the equipment is • monopolar earthing separators of 123kV
distributed in a geographically and the values of the control • Short-circuit separators 123kV.
parameters has to be displayed on a screen to be monitored. In
this design, the PLC consists of a Siemens S7-1200, HMI The monopolar separator can be controlled pneumatically,
KTP700 for monitoring the value and an infrared sensor manually or with electrical motor ASE type (Actuation
temperature. The real-time display of the data is implemented Servomotor for Exterior). In this test case is used an electrical
on the screen and data are recorded in a trend. The motor type ASE, common used in railway actuation and for
communication between PLC and HMI is realized by manual command is used a crank attached to the panel.
PROFINET and the temperature values are scaled from 0-

978-1-7281-4011-7/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

 signals that can be voltages, currents or resistances are
connected to an analog module that digitizes this signals for
further processing in the PLC. If analog quantities will be
processed with a PLC, the read-in voltage, current or resistance
value must be converted to digital information. The analog
value is converted to a bit pattern. This conversion is referred
to as analog-to-digital conversion (A/D conversion). In case of
SIMATIC devices, the result of this conversion is always a 16-
bit word. The integrated ADC (analog-to-digital converter) of
the analog input module digitizes the analog signal and
approximates its value in the form of a stepped curve. The
signal from the temperature sensor is processed by analog input
in a range of 0-10Vcc.

Fig. 1 Block diagram B. HMI- Human Machine Interface

The parameters from the process can be visualized on a
III. PROCESS CONTROL USING PLC AND HMI screen. The CPU of the PLC computes the values and sends by
The system is controlled by PLC and the temperature value PROFINET protocol to HMI screen. The configuration of data
is shown on the HMI screen. The communication between PLC transmission is done by Siemens TIA Portal software which
and HMI is PROFINET and the temperature is signal is integrates the PLC program and screen design. In the
transmitted to the analog input port of the PLC. communication between PLC and HMI is used IP address. In
commissioning process is necessary both equipment to have IP
A. PLC- Programmable Logic Controller addresses from the same class. For example, if the IP of the
PLC is 192.168.0.1 then the IP of HMI is 192.168.0.2. The
The PLC configurations can vary depending of the goal of using HMI is to display process values for the user and
complexity of the task. SIMATIC S7-1200 basic controller has to send commands to opening or close the railway separator
the advantages of comprehensive range of technological system.
functions and integrated IOs as well their particularly compact
design. In case of small automation tasks with a small project C. Temperature sensor
scope, these PLC’s are the best choice [3].
Each object emits a certain amount of infrared radiation,
The CPU combines a microprocessor, an integrated power depending on the temperature. If there is a change in the
supply, input and output circuits, built-in PROFINET, high- temperature of the object then the result will be a change in the
speed motion control I/O, and on-board analog inputs in a intensity of the radiation. For the measurement of thermal
compact housing to create a powerful controller as shown in radiation infrared sensor uses a wave-length with the range
Fig.2. After you download your program, the CPU contains the between 1m and 20m. The intensity of the emitted radiation
logic required to monitor and control the devices in your depends on the material. This material contingent constant is
application.. described with the help of the emissivity which is a known
value for most materials.
Infrared sensors are optoelectronic sensors. The
temperature of the target object is calculated based on the
infrared radiation it emits. The main advantage of using
infrared sensors is that the user can measure the temperature of
the object contactless. Therefore, these devices help to measure
the temperature of hard-to-reach or moving objects without
difficulty. Infrared sensors consist of the following
components:
• lens
• spectral filter
• detector
• electronics (amplifier/ linearization/ signal processing)
Fig. 2 PLC electrical wiring The characteristic of the lens has a major impact in
determination of the optical path of the infrared thermometer,
Comparing to a binary signal, which can have only two which is characterized by the ratio Distance to the spot size.
signal states (“Voltage present +24 V” and “Voltage not The spectral filter selects the wavelength range, which is used
present 0 V”), the analog signals can assume any value within a for the temperature measurement. The detector together with
defined range. These electrical devices which provide electrical
the processing electronics, transforms the emitted infrared The communication between PLC and HMI is PROFINET
radiation into electrical signals. and it is configurable from TIA Portal software as shown in
Fig. 5.
Temperature sensor is connected to analog input channel of
PLC according to Fig.3. The output signal of the sensor is
unified signal 0-10Vcc.

Fig. 3 Temperature sensor wiring

Every object emits a certain intensity of the infrared Fig. 5 Network configuration
radiation that depends on the temperature as well as on the
radiation characteristics of the surface material from which the IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
measuring object is made.The emissivity  is used as a material
constant factor, to describe the ability of the body to emit The system can be controlled locally by pressing opening
infrared energy which can range from 0 to 100%. A black or closing buttons of the railway separator electrical panel. The
object is the ideal radiation source with an emissivity of 1.0 maximum current that flows in monopolar separator is
whereas a mirror shows an emissivity of 0.1. In=1250A and voltage Un=35kV. The temperature is a
function of the intensity of electrical current which passes
If the emissivity chosen is too high, the infrared sensor may through the contacts of the monopolar railway separator.
display a temperature value which is much lower than the real
temperature – assuming the measuring object is warmer than
its surroundings. A low emissivity of reflective surfaces, can K * I 2 =θ (1)
lead to inaccurate measuring results by interfering infrared
radiation emitted by background objects (flames, heating The load separator is operated by a servomotor powered
systems, chamottes). To minimize measuring errors in such supply to 220V whose control can be local or remote. The
cases, the handling should be performed very carefully and the actuating device by means of levers and connecting rods
unit should be protected against reflecting radiation sources. transmits a rotational movement to the movable insulators of
each column, and these in turn transmit by means of cranks and
D. TIA Portal software rods, a rotation movement with an angle of 90 degrees. The
Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal) features pulse buttons sends the signals to relays for open/close which
high performance program editors for programming the S7 maintain the latch position through auxiliary contact till the end
controllers. The software includes Step 7 for PLC of the movement.
programming, WinCC package to design the HMI screens. TIA The normal switching of the electrical circuit interrupting
Portal allows to efficiently creating the project using software the motor supply at the end of the movement is done by
generators, thus reducing the number of redundant workflows. following the outline of the cam. The electrical drawing of the
In the PLC program, the analog value is scaled and monopolar railway separator is shown on Fig. 6.
normalized in order to be displayed on the screen like in Fig.4.
The TIA Portal library contains different blocks for configuring
analog input signal and input/output fields in WinCC package
to show the process value.

Fig. 6 Electrical drawing

Fig. 4 Analog Input signal
 The electrical symbols used in the electrical drawing are shown in Fig.8 which represent over temperature as the
described in Table 1. difference between measured temperature and ambient
temperature.
TABLE I.

Electrical symbol Description

CCI-1, CCI2 contacts of the closing relay

CCD-1, CCD2 contacts of the opening relay
CBI-1, CBI-2 close button contacts
CBD-1, CBD-2 open button contacts
C1-1, C2-2, C2-1, C2-2 auxiliary contacts
CI closing relay
CD opening relay
S Fuse 6A
R Heat resistance
Fig. 8 Temperature output
M servomotor
V. CONCLUSIONS
The input current can be adjusted by a current source up to The temperature control system introduced in this paper can
3000A. The infrared pyrometer Optris CS LT infrared meet the different process requirements and provides useful
temperature sensor measures the infrared radiation and sends information in monitoring system but also could be
the signal to analog input of the PLC. The temperature signal is implemented in a closed loop control. The analog signal of the
in the range 0-10Vcc for a 0-350°C scale configured with intelligent sensor is processed by CPU and sends it by
Software CompactConnect from Optris. In Fig. 7 can be PROFINET protocol to HMI for user monitoring.
observed the infrared sensor mounted on the monopolar
Additionally temperatures sensors, thermocouples, will be
separator.
connected to the system to have an increased accuracy of the
temperature measurement. The temperature signal can be
transmitted by Web service capability of the SIEMENS CPU to
be displayed on mobile phone for future work.

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[3] http://www.siemens.com.
[4] https://www.optris.global/optris-cs-lt-csmed-lt
[5] Li Jie.”A distributed temperature monitoring system based On
Ethernet”,The electronic commerce,vol.06,Aug.2015,pp.59-60,
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[6] Wang Hongyi.”PLC data collection module design”,.Inner Mongolia
Fig. 7 Monopolar separator university of science and technology,vol.12,Sep. 2013,pp.36-
38,doi:10.1096/1347-2547-187.
By varying the current trough monopolar separator, the
temperature will increase with the square of the input current as