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Need For PLC Automation

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23 views6 pages

Need For PLC Automation

plc

Uploaded by

Affan Ahmmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interlock

One of the most important and common problem is the safety of equipments
and operators by preventing the machine from running under specific
conditions for realizing the safety of equipment and human as well. Not only
does it fulfill safety but also it is for performing the designed sequence of
operation. If there is a problem, then it should be the solution for it. the
solution is what so-called “Interlock”.
What is interlock? And why do we need it? And how we can design a good
interlock?
We may find such concerns exist in two aspects which are safety and operation
sequence.
In the first aspect, safety happens when we need to make the execution of one
operation or process locked by some condition for realizing the safety of the
operator or equipment. The second one is operation sequence for which we
need to sort the operation into sequential and concurrent tasks according to
the logic philosophy of the operation. That can be realized by preventing one
task of execution until one other task is finished or letting one task wait until
one or more conditions are fulfilled.
How we can perform interlock?
It can be done in many approaches. However, we can say simply there is only
and only one idea to do interlock. It is by putting the condition “contact” on
which it will be decided if the process will go on or not, or based on it, one
piece of equipment can go running or keep stopped.

What is interlock?

Interlock is how to prevent one process or equipment from running to satisfy


safety requirements or fulfill the logic of the operation. A clear example of an
interlock is to prevent cutting weapons from executing as long as the hands of
the operator are away from the working area. In this case, there will be two
push buttons on the left and right of the operator and out of the working space
to make sure, when the operator requests the cutting machine to operate, his
hands were pressing those two push buttons which are out of the working
space. The previous example shows how to employ interlock for realizing
safety purposes. Another instance that shows how Interlock can be used to
satisfy the operation logic requirements is when we need to drive the motor in
two directions. In that case, we commonly use two relays or contactors for
forward and reverse directions. So, there should be an interlock of each
contactor to each other meaning we cannot activate both at the same time
because that will end up with a short circuit on the motor or the supply.

What are types of interlock?

There are two main types of interlock which are safety interlocks and machine
or equipment interlocks. Safety interlocks for securing people from getting
hurt while they operate the machine. And machine interlock concerns with
securing the safety of machine parts and or realizing specific philosophy of
logic. Figure 1 shows the different types and subcategories of interlock. The
machine or equipment interlock can be classified into three types which are
mechanical, electrical, and logical interlock types. And from their titles, the
mechanical interlock can be physically satisfied by making mechanical
connections between equipment to let or prevent them from running. An
electrical interlock can be achieved by using electrical devices like relys’ coils,
sensors, and switches. The first one which is relays’ coils is the most interesting
electrical interlock technique as they can be utilized in creating a dependency
between equipment so we can design flexibly dependence between two
motors, for example, to not running simultaneously meaning one of two
running scenarios. The last type is the logical interlock which is the most
important one and that is the most frequently used in real life in the industry.
Because it is done programmatically without the need for mechanical
connections and setup or even electrical devices or hardwiring. Also, it is very
flexible as you can change it when there is a need to change the logic at any
time.

Fig.1: interlock types


Figure 2 shows the example of a safety interlock to protect the operator from
entering the zone of robot work to save him from the movable parts.

Fig. 2: the safety interlock

Figure 3 shows a schematic of a mechanical interlock for a setup that makes


the motor spin either forward or reverse direction and prevent enabling both
at the same time. The dotted line represents the mechanical interlock between
the two contactors for reverse and forward contactors for guaranteeing to
enable only one of them at any given time.
Figure 4 shows the case of missing the mechanical interlock between the two
contactors. It shows the possibility of activating both of them at a given time.
In that case, you can see the damaging effects on the motor and the short
circuit possibility on the power lines.

Another example of mechanical interlock is car steering interlock as shown in


fig. 5. The steering wheel is interlocked mechanically and unlocked by inserting
the key.

The mechanical interlock was commonly used in the past and may be exist
nowadays but very rarely. On the other hand, the electrical interlock is the
most commonly used in control systems currently. Similarly, the idea of
electrical interlock can be achieved by preventing the flow of current between
two devices at the same time. Typically two contactors or relays are used for
achieving such electrical interlock. One of these contractors will be normally
open and the other will be in a normally closed configuration as in Fig. 6. It is
very clear that for energizing the lamp, CR2 will be energized when CR1 is de-
energized.

Another example of electrical interlock which is very common is the thermal


overload shown in Fig 7. It shows two contactors are used in electrical interlock
configuration. The main contractor is in a normally open configuration while
the thermal overload contactor is in a normally closed configuration. When
there the temperature is getting high to a specific value the thermal overload
turns over from normally closed to normally open to disconnect the load.

Logical interlock is applying the same concept of interlock programmatically. In


this type, there is no mechanical or electrical physical connection for achieving
interlock. Instead, programming is used to perform the interlock. This logical
interlock saves the effort of commissioning including mechanical or electrical
connections. In addition, it realizes reliability and flexibility.

Logical interlock in ladder logic programming

Figure 8 shows one example of logic interlock. You can notice the left part of
the figure shows there are no mechanical or electrical hardwiring or
connections between pumps 1 and 2. However, pump 2 is interlocked with
pump 1 logically as shown in the most left part that shows the ladder logic
code. To have pump 2 running, pump 1 should run first by the level switch. As
shown on the right part of the figure below, when the level of the liquid
reaches above the level switch, the switch is turned on and energized pump 1
which activates pump 2.

Figure 9 shows another logic interlock example in which a timer of type on


delay is used to interlock equipment. As shown on the left the ladder logic
code and on the right, an image shows the scenario of the logic with
astonishing visualization. It shows that, when the operator presses the start
pushbutton and keep pressing on it for the preset time value which is 3
second, the timer contact turns on and the coil of the contactor is energized.
Now let us go to the lab and open our simulator to run those examples to
validate their logic and verify their proper operations.

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