ME 523 Industrial Plant Engineering

What is an industrial system?

An industrial system consist of inputs, processes and outputs. The inputs are the raw
materials, labor and costs of land, transpor t, power and other infrastructure. The
processes include a wide range of activities that convert the raw material into finished
products. The outputs are the end product and the income earned from it. For example,a
leader shoe company may use a variety of materials used for making shoes such as
leather fabrics, plastic, rubber, wood, jute fabrics, metal, and labor, land, transport,
power. The process would include cutting, machining, finishing, etc. And the output
would be the final product, leather shoe.

For the first two meetings, we have discussed the following:

a) General design consideration for industrial plant (system and equipment)
b) Fundamentals of process plant design

We shall continue to discuss to understand the basics of industrial machines/euipment

and in the succeeding meetings we hope to cover the following:
- General piping systems and lay-out of industrial plant
- Principles of materials handling
- Industrial steam processes
- Industrial wates water treatment
- Air pollution control systems for industrial application
- Fire protection system
• Basic components of any automated machine/equipment:
1) mechanical
2) electrical
3) hydraulic
4) pneumatic
5) electronic

• Mechanical components may be classified as: a) Commercially available (requisites

are: technical data, selection and installation), examples are bearings, chains, screw,
sprocket, belts, etc; b) non-commercially available (can be sourced thru fabrication)

• Electrical components maybe divided into: a) prime moving and the b) control
components
a)Prime moving - can be further subdivided into rotating and linear movement
actuators.
Majority of rotating prime movers are used to move conveyors, in harmony with
other moving parts. kinematically linked with that prime mover. Speed maybe
regulated by way of a frequency regulators.
Electrical linear prime mover on the otherhand may be done using solenoid coil.
However, there's a chance of being burned in case of stuck-up and due to its
relatively higher energy consumption, this fuction is normally delegated to a
 pneumatic cylinder. Example: A. C. motor, DC motor, stepper motor, servo motor,
solenoid coil
b)Control components
Necessary for the control of motors normally placed in the control panel.
Example: push buttons, relays, magnetic contactors, timers, counters

• Hydraulic components are sometimes necessary in case of heavy load as to push, pull,
lift, compress and even rotate function of the machine.
Hydraulic components are sub-divided into: a) Power pack, b) cylinders, c) directional
valve and d) basic circuitry.
a)Power pack - It is the power source of hydraulic actuators. This is where electirc
energy is being converted into mechanical form, then to high pressure fluid
energy and ultimately back to mechanical energy in the form of linear or rotary
motion. Its usual major components of are as follows: 1) electric motor, b)
hydraulic pump, 3) oil reservoir, 4) pressure relief valve, 5) directional valves, 6)
actuators (cylinder or hydraulic motor)

Normally, an electric power is supplied to the electric motor coupled directly to

the hydraulic pump. The hydraulic pump pressurizes the oil as it sucked from the
reservoir. Oil is then “pushed” against the spring force of the relief valve.
Pressure relief valve is the resisting part which makes it possible to increase the
system pressure to more than 100 bar. The pressure created will be directed by
the valve to the desired path flow. This high pressure oil will be the driving force
of the hydraulic cylinder or the hydraulic motor.

b)Hydraulic cylinder and hydraulic motor - It is where the pressure energy is

converted into mechanical energy. Hydraulic cylinder is composed of the following
1) Barrel, 2) Piston, 3) Piston rod, and 4) Seals.
Depending on the application, a cylinder may be single acting (push only or pull
only) or a double acting cylinder (push and pull actions).
Hydraulic motor is the slow rotating equipment with very high tourque. Application
is varied and specialized.

c)Directional control valve - it directs the flow of oil from the pump to the actuator
and from actuator back to the reservoir. Its application is so varied and the
mentioned functions is only one example of its wide application. A lot of complex
application can be found in a more sophisticated machines.
 d)Basic circuitry - Hydraulic circuit is the “road map” of oil's pathway. With a lot of
symbols for valves, cylinders, pressure regulators and other components, the
circuit diagram may look so complex for beginners. However, when properly
understood, the circuit comes as exciting picture of how hydraulic system works.

• Pneumatic components - As the mechanical operations needed by the a cer tain

process become more and more complex, pure mechanical designs such as pure
kinematics will surely give designers a severe headache in coming up with solutions.
Thanks to pneumatic, mechanical operations such as rotating, lifting, compressing,
pushing, pulling and even more complex combinations can now be made easliy. With
the advent of the Programmable Logic Controller or PLC, the job is further made
appropriate air cylinders, mount them on the machine parts and structure and the
PLC will take care of how their movement will be. Programming of the right
sequence is normally done after all the parts are mounted properly.
The pneumatic components are divided into the following:
1. Compressed air system
2. Pneumatic actuators
3. Directional control valves
4. Fittings and accessories
 *FRL unit means Filter Regulator and Lubricator Unit Function of FRL unit Filter (F) –
1) To remove the micron and sub-micron particles present in the entering air of
compressor 2) Used to separate out contaminants like dust, dirt particles from the
compressed air Regulator (R)–In pneumatic system the pressure of compressed air
may not stable due to possibility of line fluctuation. Hence there is a need to maintain
and regulate the air pressure. This function is performed by regulator. Lubricator (L) –
Sliding components like spool, a pneumatic cylinder has sliding motion between parts.
It may cause friction and wear and tear at mating parts. To reduce friction, lubricating
oil particles are added in the compressed air with the help of lubricator

b. Pneumatic actuators - the same with hydraulic actuators, they are divided into two: 1)
those that give linear movement and 2) those for rotary movement. They are further
subdivided according to their functions as follows:
a)Compressed air system - Since air is the power carrier in pneumatic system,
considerations must be given on how air is compressed and treated. Without proper
treatment of compressed air, the life of the pneumatic components or the whole
machine or equipment will be in jeopardy.
As air is being compressed using compressor unit, impurities such as dust, oil mist
and water vapor sips in. After compression, the impurities w/c were tolerable in the
uncompressed stage becomes a major problem after compression. Compressed air
treament is the solution to the said problem. The equipment needed are:
1. Aftercooler
2. Air tank
3. Series of mainline filters
4. Air dryer
5. Piping
6. Service unit FRL*
 Pneumatic Actuators

Linear Rotary

double single continuous oscillating

acting acting
push type
std.
pull type
compact
clamp
tandem
rodless
others
c. Directional control valves - the functions of pneumatic directional valves are
basically the same with hydraulic directional valve. There is one peculiar
difference in pneumatics, used air is exhausted to the atmosphere while in
hydraulic, the used oil must be returned back to the oil reservoir ready to be re-
used. The physical appearance of the hydraulic valve can never be mistaken as
pneumatic valve. The latter are characterized as light and normally made up of
cast aluminum or zinc alloy while that of hydraulics are made of heavy and strong
metal.

There are two basic designs of valves namely; 1) seat or poppet design and the 2)
slide type. Both have their distinct advantages and dis-advantages. Since there are
thousand of models available in the market, the following specifications can be
used as the basis for their distinctions: 1) number of ports, 2) number of switching
position, 3) type of actuation, 4) type of re-set, 5) size of port, 6) flow capacity, 7)
voltage/wattage/ampacity, 8) type of seal (rubber or metal)
d. Basic circuitry - Hydraulic and pneumatic circuits havemany aspects of similarity. The
pneumatic symbols follow the ISO 1219 standard although with slight deviation. To
make distinction between pneumatic and hydraulic symbols,hydraulic symbols are
drawn with heavy lines with arrows darkly shaded while pneumatic symbols are
characterized with light lines and unshaded arrows. Oil circuit lines are represented
by solid lines for both power and control lines while in pneumatics, air control lines
are normally represented by broken lines.

• Electronic components needed in making machine controls can be divided into 1)

basic components, 2) specialized components, 3) hard wired control system and the
4) microprocessor based controller (PLC).
1. Basic components - these are normally commercially available, components
such as sensors, timers, switches, etc. Most of these items are being used as the
eyes, ears and senses of the machine. These are the ones giving information to
the main brain of the machien. Without these comonents, automation operation
will not be possible.
2. Specialiazed components - these are the devices which are commercially
available and intended for specialized applications. Examples are transmitters,
transducers, positioners and position transmitters. These are specialized sensing
devices which can continuously provide information on any desired parameter
such as fluid pressure, temperature, flow, humidity, mechanical position, etc.
 The information maybe transmitted electronically at a continuous basis or at a
desir ed tim e inter val as the input to the m ain m achine pr ocessor. T hese
components are sometimes referred to as instrumentation devices. Data maybe
taken and transmitted either electronically or pneumatically. In electronic data
transmission, signals maybe in the form of current or voltage. The standard current
signal is 4 - 20 milliampere or voltage potential of 1 - 5 volts. Pneumatic data
transmission is at standard low pressure range of 3 - 15 psi.
3. Hard wired control components - these are the components which are normally
installed in the control box or control panel such as push buttons, pilot lamps,
relays, magnetic contactors, timers, counters, fuses, etc. As the name implies,
these are components which needs to be physically connected or wired either by
screws or by soldering. Any alteration in the desired control function will need
physical re-wiring of these components. This is the main disadvantage in the
control system if fully hard wired, that is, without the use of any microprocessor
based controller. Any change in machine sequence or requirement would need a
laborious re-wiring which entails long machine downtime.
4. Microprocessor based controller or the programmable logic controller, PLC - The
PLC is a microprocessor base controller which came into existence due to the need
in the production floor to have more frequent change in machine sequence of
operation. Since such frequent change in sequence is a big problem with hard wired
system, the PLC came into being as the solution. With a PLC, the secquence of the
machine operation can be done easily without any change in the wiring. Changes
can easily be done by simply doing it from the programming console. It was usually
used in complex machine sequences in medium and large scale machines. However,
now, even small and simple machine are controlled or uses a PLC in its operation
for ease. A PLC is composed basically of the following components:
a. Power supply,
b. Central processing unit (CPU),
c. Input and output modules
d. Memory
e. Programming module or also called the program loader.

a. Power supply - To ensure that proper electric power is supplied to the CPU. A
power supply specifically intended for a certain CPU is normally provided by the
PLC supplier.

b. Central processing unit (CPU) - is the main brain of the PLC. This is where the
status of the inputs and the outputs are monitored continuously. The status of the
inputs and outputs are continuously being compared to a pre-loaded or pre-
programmed “pattern” or “sequence”. When such status of the inputs and outputs
matches to a certain pre-loaded pattern/sequence, an output or set outputs will
be directed by the CPU to the output module. The corresponding response,
 mechanical or electrical, will follow. Such response will create feedback which
will be sensed by sensors and signal will be returned to the CPU in the form of
input thereby giving a new inputs and outputs pattern or sequence. When this
change in input/output status is sensed by the CPU, it then matches again this
situation to the programmed pattern or sequence and the cycle repeats.
CPU can also perform arithmetic and logic functions. It contains considerable
number of internal timers, counters and registers.

c. Input and output modules - input and output modules is the PLC's link to the
outside world. These are where the input signals are wired. The CPU's response
to any change in input/output situation is being transmitted through the output
module.
Sensors and switches are wired through the input module while the output
modules are normally wired to loads such as solenoid valves, magnetic
contactors, pilot lamps, audio devices, alarms, etc.
In case of short circuit or over current either in the input or output side, the CPU
will not be harmed because there is no physical electrical link between the CPU
and the input module, nor CPU and the output module. These are opto-coupled.
The input signal from a sensor generates light by the virtue of a light emitting
diode (LED). It is this light which is to be sensed by the CPU as the input.

d. Memory - this where the program resides. The memory maybe in the form of RAM
(Random Access Memory) or ROM (Read Only Memory). ROM maybe classified as
 1) Programmable ROM or PROM, 2) Erasable PROM or EPROM, and 3) Electrically
Erasable PROM or EEPROM.
Data stored in the RAM is volatile. When the electric power gets off, the data
too is lost. Back-up battery is therefore necessary to maintain the data in the
RAM.
While the program is being done, the data is being stored first in the RAM. After
such program is tested and finalized, it must be saved in the ROM to assure its
integrity in longer time.

5. Programming module or program loader - this device is being used in making the
program. Once programming is finished, the program must be down loaded to the
CPU for trial. Any change in the program is being done in the programming
module. Once program is finalized and downloaded to the CPU, the function of the
programming module is no longer necessary and maybe safely kept for future use.