Industrial Electronics Laboratory

GENERAL INFORMATION

Industrial Electronics Laboratory is established for graduate and undergraduate level students in order to study in fields such as power electronics, programmable logic controllers (PLC), industrial automation and motor drives. The laboratory equipments are catagorized in five groups which are power electronics, transducers and measurement instruments, process control systems, programmable logic controllers, electrical machines and motor drives. The laboratory equipment generally enables students to work in the following fields:

• Fundamentals of power electronics

• Power electronics and drive technologies

• Transducers

• Process control

• Open and closed loop control systems

• Automatic control systems

• PLC applications

• Electrical machines characteristics and control

EQUIPMENTS

Power Electronics

The modern age of power electronics began with the introduction of thyristors in the late 1950s. Now there are several types of power devices available for high- power and high-frequency applications. The most notable power devices are gate turn-off thyristors, power Darlington transistors, power MOSFETs, and insulated- gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). Power semiconductor devices are mainly used as switches to convert power from one form to another. They are used in motor control systems, uninterrupted power supplies, high-voltage dc transmission, power supplies, inductive heating, and in many other conversion applications. Another important concept in power electronics, power conversion, deals with the process of converting electric power from one form to another. The power electronic apparutes performing the power conversion are called power converters. Because they contain no moving parts, they are often referred to as static converters. The power conversion is achieved using power semiconductor devices, which are used as switches. The power devices used are SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers, or thyristors), triacs, power transistors, power MOSFETs, IGBTs, and MCTs (MOS-controlled thyristors). The power converters are generally classified as; ac-dc converters (phase-controlled converters), direct ac-ac converters cycloconverters), dc-ac converters (inverters), dc-dc converters (choppers, buck and boost converters).

Automatic Control

Automatic control has played a vital role in the advance of engineering and science. In addition to its extreme importance in space-vehicle systems, missile-guidance systems, robotic systems, and the like, automatic control has become an important and integral part of modern manufacturing and industrial processes. For example, automatic control is essential in the numerical control of machine tools in the manufacturing industries, in the design of autopilot systems in the aerospace industries, and in the design of cars and trucks in the automobile industries. It is also essential in such industrial operations as controlling pressure, temperature, humidity, viscosity, and flow in the process industries. Since advances in the theory and practice of automatic control provide the means for attaining optimal performance of dynamic systems, improving productivity, relieving the drudgery of many routine repetitive manual operations, and more, engineers and scientists must have a good understanding of this field.

Power Electronics & Drive Technologies

Power Electronics is a significant field within electrical engineering and electronics. Using power semiconductors, power electronics performs such functions as switching, controlling and converting of electrical energy with the greatest possible efficiency. One area of application for power electronics is drive technology. Here, speed variable DC and three-phase four-quadrant drives can easily be realized using modern power electronics. As a result of this development, we can no longer imagine industry, workshop tools, commercial enterprises and household appliances without thyristor speed control units, smooth-starting circuits, frequency converters, servo systems etc. The training panel systems in our labarotory for power electronics and drive technology makes it possible to convey the technical knowledge of this field. The experiments permit practice-oriented, hands-on training to be carried out, thus assuring the trainees of the proficiency needed to handle the tasks and the equipment found in this field. The training panels and functional units with block circuit diagrams and signal diagrams permit clear and understandable assembly of the experiment circuits. Beginning with the basic circuits, the student proceeds to tackle more complex circuits in power electronics and drive technology using a proven step-by-step method designed for didactic results.

Programmable Logic Controllers

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are flexible alternative to hardwired relay systems. They are used to control manufacturing processes. The information from PLCs can be accessed by Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, to provide a graphical representation of the status of plant. PLCs range from small unit devices to large rack based systems such as Siemens’ S5 and S7 ranges. In addition to standard analogue and digital inputs and outputs many PLCs can be connected to devices and systems via Profibus and Ethernet connections. A PLC may have Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) controllers that can be tuned to give optimal control.

EXPERIMENTS

• EE432 – Industrial Electronics