Design of Teaching Platform for Process Automation

Industrial controllers and plants are crucial tools for teaching in universities, colleges, and institutes to bridge the gap between academia and industry. This paper introduces a multi-functional industrial plant that employs a programmable logic controller (PLC) for process automation. The industrial plant consists of a pump, a heating system, various types of sensors (such as pressure and temperature sensors), and different valves (including manual acting, pneumatic, and proportional solenoid valves), which can be configured in different combinations to serve different process control purposes. To expand the input and output capabilities and distribute the input/output (I/O) modules, a Siemens SIMATIC ET 200SP I/O system is connected to a Siemens SIMATIC S7-1200 PLC using Profinet communication networks. A case study is provided to verify the effectiveness of the process control station.