Controlling of a Pneumatic PositioningSystem by means of a PLC

Servo pneumatic systems are widely used to obtain a clean, accurate, robust position control in many industrial drives. This technology has the potential to replace electromechanical and hydraulic drives in many applications. The high power-to-weight ratio and low cost of pneumatic actuators make them attractive for a pneumatic cylinder’s precision positioning. Still, it is not easy to achieve fast and accurate position control. This work presents the position control of a single-rod, double-acting cylinder implemented in a PLC with a Camozzi serial node responsible for managing inputs and outputs. A didactic bench provided by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMEAS) is used because it is equipped with different components that allow performing the tests using various schemes, types of valves, and control algorithms. After describing the didactic test bench components, their main features, and the correct configuration, a full chapter describes the PLC Programmation through the software Tia Portal. Finally, a comparison is made between the test results using different pneumatic valves and various techniques to control a pneumatic actuator position. Details of each control method and the results obtained are given, and finally, a global comparison is made with several critical considerations. The experiments realized on the didactic bench exposed during the thesis will help students for academic exercises during fluid automation and industrial automation courses.