Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
School Of Engineering
Industrial Engineering Department

Automated Conversion Technology

Submitted to:
Engr. Eugene Ramos

Submitted by:
Camille G. Cabral
4IE2

Date Submitted:
January 21, 2016

Basic Elements of an Automated System Automation is defined as the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services; or in simpler term it is the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services. An Automated System has 3 basic elements, these are Power Source, Program of Instructions, and Control Systems.

1. Power – It refers to the supply needed in order to accomplish the process and operate the automated system. The most common power source is electricity. 2. Program of Instructions – It is the set of commands that specify the sequence of steps in the work cycle and the details of each step. It is used in directing the process. (e.g. Temperature setting of a furnace, Axis position in a positioning system, Motor on or off) 3. Control System – It is actuating of the instructions.

Figure 1. The Basic Elements of an Automated System

The figure above shows how power is being distributed to the other elements and to the process. Power for process is used to drive the process itself, to load and unload units, and transport between operations. It is also distributed to both 2 and 3 to actuate the control signals, to control units, and to acquire data and process information.

Advanced Autmation Function
1. Safety monitoring – it is the use of sensors to track the system's operation and identify conditions that are unsafe or potentially unsafe. Its purpose is to protect the workers and equipment.

2. Maintenance and repair diagnostics - refer to the capabilities of an automated system to assist in identifying the source of potential or actual malfunctions and failures of the system. It can have status monitoring, failure diagnostics, recommendation of repair procedure.

3. Error detection and recovery – it has the ability of error detection and error recovery.

Levels of Automation
1. Device level - the lowest level it includes the actuators, sensors, and other lower devices. In this level various sensing and actuating devices controls the manufacturing process.
2. Machine level - the hardware from device level is assembled into individual machines. It is an instrumentation level of machine control. Tasks of this level include data collection, signal check and machine control.

3. Cell or system level - a group of machines or workstations connected and supported by a material handling system, computer, and other equipment needed for a manufacturing process. This is another automation level at which operation of a group of machines within a manufacturing cells are coordinated. Various automated controllers like PLCs are employed for such control of machines

4. Plant level - it receives instructions from the corporate information system and translate them into operation plan for production. This automation level performs the activities of productionmonitoring, control and scheduling, etc.

5. Enterprise level - , the highest level it is concerned with all functions necessary to manage the company: marketing and sales, accounting, design, research, aggregate planning, and master production scheduling

Automatic Identification Method
Automatic Identification Method or Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) is the use of technology to provide direct data entry to a computer, or other micro-processor controlled system, without resorting to manual methods of data-entry. Data collection and retention has increasingly been automated to the point where AIDC systems can operate without relying upon human operators for basic data identification and capture. The following applications are regularly operated in AIDC mode: material handling, storage, sorting, order picking, kitting of parts for assembly; monitoring work order status, work-in-process, machine utilization, worker attendance, and other measures of factory operation and performance.
Three specific components that comprise technologies for Automatic Identification and Data Capture:
1. Data encoder—data must be coded into a machine-readable format compatible to the requirements of AIDC. A label or tag containing the encoded data is attached to the item to be identified.
2. Machine reader or scanner—this is used to read the encoded data, typically converting it into the form of an electrical analogue signal.
3. Data decoder—this transforms the electrical signal into digital data and finally back into the original alphanumeric characters.

Bar Code Technology
There are two basic types of barcode technology, linear and two-dimensional.
1. Linear Barcodes
a. Width-modulated barcode
Used widely in retailing and manufacturing, the barcode consists of bars and spaces of varying width, with the bars and spaces being in highly-contrasting colors, such as black and white. The pattern of bars and spaces is coded to represent numeric or alphanumeric characters. This code is subsequently interpreted by a barcode reader; this reading action is done by scanning and decoding the sequence in which the bars fall.
b. Height-modulated barcode
The barcode in question is distinguished by a series of evenly-spaced bars of varying height.

2. Two-dimensional Barcodes
a. Stacked barcode
Consists of multiple rows of conventional linear barcodes stacked on top of each other. Decoding in a stacked barcode is done by using a laser-type scanner that reads the lines sequentially. The data density of stacked barcodes is typically five to seven times that of the linear barcode 39.

b. Matrix barcode
Consists of 2-D patterns of data cells that are usually square and are colored dark (usually black) or white. They can contain more data than stacked barcodes, and also have the potential for higher data densities (up to 30 times more dense than code 39).

Other ADC Technology
Other AIDC technologies that may occasionally be used include: magnetic strips, optical character recognition, and machine vision technologies.

Magnetic Strips - These strips are attached to products or containers in warehouse and factory settings, and are used for product identification.
Advantages include: the ability to hold large amounts of data, and the ability to alter data held, if necessary.
Disadvantages, from a manufacturing point-of-view, include: the need to have the strip in contact with the scanning equipment for correct reading; the absence of shop-floor methods that can readily encode data to magnetic strips; and the expense of the technology.
Optical Character Recognition - Here specially designed alphanumeric characters that are machine readable by an optical reading device are deployed in factory and warehouse applications.
The benefit of optical character recognition is that both machines and humans can read the same text.
Disadvantages include: the need for near-contact scanning; lower scanning rates; and higher error rates compared to barcode scanning.

Machine vision - Used principally for automated inspection tasks, machine vision read 2-D matrix symbols, such as data matrix, or stacked barcodes.

Sources:
Groover, M. (2008). Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.