Graphic Display

Anaheim Automation offers three basic types of Graphic Display products which are the pushbutton replacer, data handler, and the overseer. Before Graphic Display products came to existence sometimes there would be hundreds of pushbuttons and LED's all meaning a different thing and all buttons performing different operations. The pushbutton replacer Graphic Display has eliminated the need for so many buttons and has centralized all the functions of each button into one location. The data handler is perfect for when you need constant feedback from your system or printouts of the production reports. With the data handler you must make sure that your Graphic Display screen is big enough for such things; graphs, visual representations and production summaries. The data handler includes such functions as; recipes, data trending, data logging and alarm handling/logging. Finally anytime your application involves SCADA or MES an overseer Graphic Display can be extremely beneficial. The overseer Graphic Display will most likely need to run windows and have several Ethernet ports.

Let us begin with other components that are essential to making a manufacturing control system operate. First we have the production line that consists of all the machinery that essentially does all the work in the production of the product. Next we have all the various input/output sensors that monitor temperature, speed, pressure weight and feed rate. Third we have the programmable logic controller (PLC) that will receive all the data from the input/output sensors and convert the data into logical combinations.

Graphic Display wiring is a rather simple task, especially if you are already using a PLC. Wiring a Graphic Display is simple due to the lack of a need for USB, RS-232, or RS-485. If both the PLC and the Graphic Display are equipped with wireless capabilities, the process is even easier. Depending on the size of your automation line, PLC wiring to your task may become complex, and require the need for profibus extensions. These are similar to power strips; however they extend on input/output to multiple inputs/outputs simply by connecting to the PLC's expansion port. Fortunately, wiring the HMI to the PLC is an effortless task, so to speed up your entire wiring process drastically, develop a wiring schematic from your production line to the PLC.

The Graphic Display is used throughout numerous industries including metals manufacturing, vending machines, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and utilities, just to name a few. In metals manufacturing, a Graphic Display has control of how the metal is cut and folded and how fast to do so. A Graphic Display offers improved stock control and replenishment so the fewer journeys are required out to the vending machines. Graphic Displays are used in bottling processes to control all aspects of the manufacturing line such as; speed, efficiency, error detection and error correction. Utilities use Graphic Display products to monitor water distribution and wastewater treatment.

Graphic Display stems from the demand to make machinery much easier to control and operate and produce optimal outputs. Predecessors of the Graphic Display include the Batch interface (1945-1968), Command-Line user interface (1969-Present) and the Graphical user interface (1981-Present). The Batch interface is a non-interactive user interface where the user specifies all the details in advance to the batch process, and receives all the output when all the processing is done. This batch process does not allow for additional input once the process has begun which can be a real problem in modern manufacturing lines. The command line interface is a mechanism that interacts with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks. The concept of the command line interface originated when teletypewriter machines were connected to computers in the 1950s, and offered results on demand, which was a big downfall of batch interface because it could not deliver results on demand. A basic example of command line interface would be windows Disk Operating System “DOS” which dominated the eighties. Over time our interfaces have become highly complex and extremely easy to use one such interface would be the graphical user interface(GUI). Graphical User Interface allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing, such as computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices, household appliances, and office equipment with images rather than text commands. Human Machine Interface stems directly from Graphical User Interface and comes from the demand of being able to control and operate machinery much more effectively. Human Machine Interface formerly known as Man Machine interface is now leading the way in the control of manufacturing processes because it is so user friendly.

How do you control a PLC without ladder logic? How does a Graphic Display replace the PLC software that most PLCs comes standard with? Ladder logic is simply conditional programming. For example, if input 1 is energized then coil 1 will be powered. A statement has to be true for the output to be executed. With C programming you can do the same, but in order to program a Graphic Display to operate a PLC properly you must first know all the registers of the PLC. A good way to learn how to program a PLC via a Graphic Display is to first start working with the PLC and the software it came with. This way you get a firm grasp on how to operate the PLC without the Graphic Display. That knowledge will transfer over when you are ready to connect the two units together.