Electroplating process plant automation and management using emerging automation and communications technologies

Abstract

The Electroplating (EP) process industry is currently facing some challenging process control problems in their production plant due to an insufficient level of automation being applied in the industry; the control is largely manual, and the monitoring of both plant and processes is ad hoc. The requirement for higher production volumes, tighter product tolerances, and the eagerness for better quality with lower cost are forcing the electroplating Companies to automate their processes and develop more responsive process and plant monitoring and control systems. Emerging Automation and communications technologies have now made it possible to effectively implement distributed control system (DCS) based control architecture with hybrid (wired/wireless) communication networks in the industry for achieving both process automation and plant management, offering various advantages such as for real-time process plant monitoring and control, plant visualization and provision of management information for control of production throughout the plant. Electroplating process industries comprising plants with numerous process stages and production operations will particularly benefit from implementing DCS where individual process stages and functions are distributed into computing nodes (i.e., control computers and smart devices) that are physically separated; and all the computing nodes are interconnected by advanced hybrid (wired/wireless) communications networks. The introduction of less expensive and more functional microprocessors has advanced the state of the art in distributed control system technology. This research aims to develop an integrated advanced process monitoring and plant management system for an electroplating industry using emerging automation and communications technologies.