Modification/automation of a Festo Control system

Discipline:
Electrical engineering

Branch:
Energy- and automation technology

Subject:
Modification and automation of a Festo Control system

Project management:
Andreas Kremer & Ralf Höck

Co-operation partner:
Berufliche Schulen Kirchhain (BSK)

Supervising tutor:
Wolfgang Brandner

Aims:
The new arrangement can be used as an instruction object for trainees and students.

Situation:
During the two-years of training at the technical school in Kirchhain each student carries out a project. Students, who train to become a state-certified technician, learn much about project management: from preparation and planning to implementation and documentation. Our motivation for this project was to work at a realistic arrangement. PLC-technology is a very interesting topic, because many companies use this technology and last but not least it is one major topic during our training.

The “Process Control System” is an arrangement that can regulate the temperature, the flow rate and the level of the two containers. In the first container you can heat water in order to pump it into the second container. During the pumping you can check the flow with a flow meter. In addition the level could be measured by an infra-red sensor.

During the implementation-stage of the project the school provided two rooms as well as computers with appropriate software. Furthermore all material was provided by the school, too. The given time range was about 200 hours.

Project description:
We dismantled the device and expanded it by two containers, a pump and some measure – and control instruments. Before starting the project we developed a time schedule for the whole project. After we assembled the device and did the wiring and we programmed the arrangement. The hardware is a Siemens Simatic S7 CPU “et200s”. The arrangement operates with a touch-panel. The touch-panel is programmed with WinCC.

Results:
Finally the assembling was successful. All processes can be navigated without problems. Now you can use the arrangement for teaching other students. There is also the opportunity to expand the arrangement according to a new situation.

Exposé in German